Getting Back to School and Back to Work
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In this excerpt of a cross-post from the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), Jeremy Hedlund and Isaiah Toney, SLAP members at the University of Oregon and George Washington University, respectively, explain that students have real power.
As summer winds down and schools across the nation start back up, students are being forced to ask themselves many tough questions. “How will I pay for my school? Will I be able to get a job when I graduate? And will that job be a good paying, family wage job, or will I have to work weekends just to make ends meet?”
Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) Connects College Campuses to Union Movement
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AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita joins Chris Hicks, Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) coordinator, to discuss the parallels between campus and community organizing.
Founded in 1999 as a joint initiative between Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) engages student activists with economic justice campaigns in their communities and campuses.
Across the country, students in local SLAP chapters meet to organize around issues that affect both students and workers. Currently, campuses are working together to campaign against dramatic state budget cuts that threaten the layoffs of thousands of workers and increase fee tuitions, which leave students with astronomical amounts of debt.
USSA’s Cendana Named New Asian Pacific Labor Alliance Executive Director
Gregory Allan Cendana, former president of the United States Student Association (USSA) and a labor, student, and community activist, has been appointed Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA).
Cendana succeeds Malcolm Amado Uno, who served as executive director since March 2008 and who now is working at the Department of Labor as a Special Assistant to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in the Department’s Office of Public Engagement.
APALA President Luisa Blue says Cendana, who was raised in an immigrant and union family,
is grounded with strong values that are in line with our mission and vision and has a proven track record of success. Read the rest of this entry »
Student Week of Action Promotes Employee Free Choice Nationwide
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This past week, students across the country mobilized to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the Student Labor Action Project‘s annual Student Labor Week of Action.
The Week of Action commemorates the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez and their efforts on behalf of dignity and justice for workers. Student organizations taking part included United Students Against Sweatshops and the United States Student Association.
In 28 states and the District of Columbia, hundreds of students from dozens of campuses held rallies, community service days, petition drives, educational forums and other public events to promote workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain and to mobilize for a fair economy.
