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Labor College Announces Sweeney Leadership Institute |
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One of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney’s priorities throughout his years as labor leader has been to build and strengthen the union movement by educating workers so they can meet the challenges ahead in the workplace and at the bargaining table. Now, Sweeney’s efforts will carry on after he retires in September.
During a gala celebration of the 40th anniversary of the National Labor College (NLC) last night, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka announced the creation of the John Sweeney Leadership Institute, which will open this fall at the Labor College. Trumka says the institute will
help to foster the next generation of union activists and leaders. Goodness knows we need them now more than ever for the tough battles ahead.
The institute’s goal is to assist the leaders of the AFL-CIO’s affiliate unions as they confront the increasingly complex challenges facing today’s union movement. Participants will take a series of four, weeklong trainings over the course of one year. The program is designed for rising leaders and activists. Each participant will be placed with a more experienced mentor currently working in the labor movement or in closely related affiliate organizations.
Sweeney, who also chairs the college’s board of trustees and spearheaded creation of the Labor College, told the crowd “the greatest honor of all has been representing working families and our unions as my life’s work.”
It has made every day in my life incredibly special.
While I’ll be stepping down as president of the AFL-CIO, I plan to stay in the fight as a “union warrior at-large.”
With our continued hard work, we will turn around our economy and make it work for everyone. We will win health care for every family and we will restore the freedom of every worker to join a union and bargain for a better life.
Describing Sweeney as the most compassionate man he’s ever known, Trumka said Sweeney “fights for equality every day of his life” and has made a difference in the lives of millions of people over the years.
The gala paid tribute to the Labor College’s four decades of training and educating thousands of union members. The NLC is the only accredited college devoted exclusively to training and educating union members, leaders, activists and staff.
Emcee Alexis Herman, who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, set the tone for the night, saying:
We all know the world is changing right before our eyes, and the pathways to a good job with good benefits that served generations well has become twisted and often seems a maze from which we see no way out.
Well, the NLC has shown over its four decades that it can light the way to a better future and provide hope and opportunity for our working men and women and support for a strong labor movement.
Two alumni who symbolize the importance of the college were honored last night as well. James Williams, president of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), and Michael Sullivan, president of the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), both graduated in 2004 from the NLC.
For Sullivan, gaining a bachelor’s degree from the National Labor College epitomized his lifelong focus on education and training for union members. On his graduation day in 2004, he said reaching that goal was an important signal to his members about the necessity of education.
Introducing Sullivan, Marc Norbert, SMWIA assistant to the general president, said:
Quiet, thoughtful and progressive leadership have been the hallmark of Mike Sullivan’s leadership.
Last night, Sullivan told the crowd:
I always felt the labor movement was supposed to give working people opportunities, and labor education makes opportunity.
Williams, who in 2004 said his degree helped him develop a new edge on contract negotiations, added that when he visits local unions and brags about having earned his degree:
…without fail, I’ll see at least one or two faces in the room have an “aha” moment when they realize that they can get a degree as well. It’s special to see that because it’s one of the reasons I became a leader in my union in the first place—to provide my fellow members with the hope of new opportunities both professional and personal.
Other speakers included NLC President William Scheuerman and NLC alumnus Ken Rigmaiden of IUPAT.
From its founding by the AFL-CIO as the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in 1969 to its transformation to a degree-granting college in 1997 and the opening of the state-of-the-art Lane Kirkland Center in 2007, the Labor College has evolved to meet the changing needs of America’s union movement.
With a 46-acre campus just outside Washington, D.C., the nation’s only labor college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and grants bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The school now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.
Last month, the NLC graduated its 11th class, granting degrees to 103 union members. More than 1,200 union members have graduated from the NLC since 1998.
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