The UCLA Downtown Labor Center invites unions to send their best and brightest leaders to this year’s African American Union Leadership School, “Remembering Katrina: Building Black Labor Leadership and Stronger Communities for the Future,” November 16–18, with three follow-up sessions planned for the coming months.
Black communities in Los Angeles are still reeling from the collapse of the auto and aerospace industries over the past three decades and are now confronted with an unprecedented upsurge in bad jobs with low wages, no benefits, and no real opportunity for training and advancement. This has placed Los Angeles’s black communities in a perilous economic condition with thousands of African American workers moving back and forth between unemployment, low-wage service jobs, and government-subsidized employment training programs.
The African American Union Leadership School brings public and private sector unionists together to explore historical labor struggles and to develop skills needed to analyze power and turn knowledge into action. This intensive, leadership development curriculum will be facilitated by noted African American academics and leaders, including Rev. James Lawson Jr., Bill Lucy; Dr. Maulana Karenga; Anthony Thigpenn; AFL-CIO’s Yvonne Wheeler; Labor Center Director Kent Wong, and Homecare Council Director Loretta Stevens. Last year, twenty-eight students from fifteen different unions participated in the leadership program, from firefighters, electrical workers, and port workers, to municipal employees, homecare providers, and security officers.
Individual tuition is $300. The school is also seeking organizations to support the program with $2,500 sponsorship pledges. This will allow all interested participants a seat and ensure the school continues to thrive for years to come. Please contact Lola Smallwood Cuevas, 213/480-4155 x210. UCLA Labor Center and We Are America Coalition Balances the Story on How Immigrants Contribute to America. |
