Reports Document How Union Membership Helps Communities, Workers
As the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act continues, it’s worth noting that this is not just an issue of an individual worker’s freedom to join with other employees and bargain for a better life. It’s also important to note the role that unions have on communities and the economy, for members and nonmembers alike.
American Rights at Work has put together two great new reports that show how unions help create a well-trained and skilled workforce and healthier communities.
The first report, “Unions on the Cutting Edge: A Workforce Trained for the 21st Century,” focuses on how unions take the lead in creating innovative training programs for our workforce. In industries ranging from construction to health care to green energy, unions are breaking new ground and making sure America’s workers are prepared to be the very best at critical jobs.
103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College
Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is a registrar in Maryland. They’re all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: the National Labor College.
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 college evolved from the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, created in 1969, and now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.
On Saturday, 101 students will receive B.A. degrees and two others will be awarded M.A. degrees, as the Labor College graduates its 11th class in a ceremony on the Silver Spring, Md., campus. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will give the commencement address.
