LEP Update
Labor Education Program Update
February 17, 2008
http://lep.ilir.uiuc.edu
This LEP Update includes activities for both Champaign-Urbana and Chicago sites.
CHICAGO: Yesenia Vargas, 312-996-2624, 815 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago 60607
CHAMPAIGN: Joe Berry, 217-333-2388, 504 East Armory, Champaign 61820
Feb 25, Monday, 6:00 – 8:30 pm, also March 3 and March 10: Labor and Organizing in the African American Community (CHICAGO). Instructor, Emanuel Blackwell, Local 17 Heat and Frost Insulators and National Labor College graduate. African American organizing in the Chicago stockyards, the Last Campaign of Dr. Martin Luther King, and current organizing in the building trades. A problem-focused class that will build on the experience of participants. Call 312-996-2624 to register. $75 for 3 sessions.
March 29, Saturday. 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Labor history music and theater: “The March of the Mill Children”. A speech by Mother Jones, adapted and performed by Betsey Means of WomanLore, with music by Bucky Halker. At CLEP, Admission $10.
REGINA V. POLK CONFERENCE MAY 15-18. Download an application at http://lep.ilir.uiuc.edu Please fax it to 312-413-2997. Fax number on brochure was incorrect. This conference draws about 35-45 union women from Illinois and the Midwest. We have funding from the Polk Fund to provide about 35 full scholarships. The collective bargaining focus this year will be on the public sector and what used to be the public sector – transportation, post office, healthcare, schools. What’s going on with the public sector?
LABOR STUDIES CLUB (CHAMPAIGN). Contact Dierdre Darnall at d-darnall@hotmail.com for information about the Labor Studies Club at UIUC.
NATIONAL LABOR COLLEGE CLASSES (CHICAGO)
LBST 2990: Educational Planning. Required Jumpstarts will take place February 21, March 12 (note: This is a Wednesday, not a Thursday) and April 17 from 6-9 pm at CLEP. All NLC students who have not completed their portfolios are welcome. Remember, you have 14 weeks from the date of your Ed Planning class to complete your portfolio; after that, you need to get an extension from Helena and after that you will have to re-register with the NLC.
LBHU 2160 - Images of Labor in Film. The course will survey a number of important films that have strong images of labor, both positive and negative. This class meets 9 am to 4 pm, four Saturdays in a row in March: 3/1, 3/8, 3/15, 3/22 with Steven Ashby. Cost: $490.
ON-LINE CLASSES – UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS DEGREE
Even if you are not a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student, you can register for our new on-line degree program. All U of Illinois Labor Studies classes will count toward the NLC degree. If you are a University of Illinois employee, you can take these classes for free. The three Online Labor Studies classes are described below. The cost per 3-credit class is $882. When the Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations has established its BA degree, these courses will apply to your University of Illinois degree. For more information, call Steven Ashby at 312-996-8733 or email him at skashby@uiuc.edu.
LIR 100 Introduction to Labor Studies (3 credits)
The course provides an overview of workers and unions in American society.
LIR 200 Globalization and Workers (3 credits)
Is globalization good for working people in the United States and around the world? Globalization is the driving force in the world economy but it is also provoking tremendous debate and popular resistance.
LIR 300 Workers, Unions and Politics (3 credits)
The course explores political power, political participation, and political change from a broad historical and cross-cultural perspective, always focusing on a view of politics from the bottom up.
OI TRAINING: The AFL-CIO Organizing Institute will be holding a 3-day organizer training in Chicago on April 4-6. The training will be held at IAM Lodge 1487, 50 W. Oakton St, Des Plaines, IL. Contact Carol Edelson at 202-320-1410 or via email at cedelson@aflcio.org
BASIC CERTIFICATE INTRO TO LABOR LAW is under way at CLEP as of now. Intro to Collective Bargaining starts March 4, Steven Ashby, Instructor. Advanced CB will start March 5, Bob Bruno, instructor.
March 12: Book reading and signing of On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston 5, by Suzan Erem and Paul Durremberger. At UNITE! HERE, 333 S. Ashland, 5 to 7 p.m. with refreshments etc. www.ontheglobalwaterfront.org Check out some of the links to videos of the strike on this.
WORKERS COMP: The CACOSH guide to the 2005 Illinois Workers Compensation Law is now available in Spanish. To get a copy ($5), call Emanuel Blackwell at 708-359-3303.
The Labor Ed program at UIUC is located at 504 East Armory, in the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. The Labor Ed program in Chicago is at Suite 110 The Rice Building, 815 West Van Buren Street (near Halsted and W. Van Buren). Both locations accessible by public transportation. If you would like us to come to your organization or local union meeting, call the numbers listed above or email Illinoislabored@uiuc.edu. We can bring our Book Table and set it up to sell and talk about good labor books provided to us by the Illinois Labor History Society, books that you may not see out on the shelf in most bookstores.