The CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) hosts a variety of conferences that bring together scholars, practitioners, and community leaders to address critical issues in labor, urban studies, and social justice. These events foster meaningful dialogue, encourage collaboration, and highlight innovative solutions to pressing challenges. Explore this page to learn more about SLU’s conferences and how they contribute to advancing knowledge and promoting impactful change.
Contact
events@slu.cuny.edu
646-313-8517
Labor and the Crisis of Democracy: Working-Class Politics in an Age of Authoritarianism
Conference sponsored by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Co-sponsored by the Cornell Worker Institute
Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9, 2025
CUNY SLU hosted a two-day conference examining the fight for democracy and workers’ rights amid rising authoritarianism. Labor leaders, organizers, and activists engaged in panels and workshops that addressed urgent threats while advancing grassroots power. If you missed any part of the event, we invite you to catch up on the conversation.
Watch video from the conference.
Featuring:
THURSDAY MORNING KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Becky Pringle – President, National Education Association
THURSDAY EVENING PUBLIC FORUM:
Bhairavi Desai – Board President, National Taxi Workers Alliance
Robin D.G. Kelley – Distinguished Professor and Chair in U.S. History, University of California, Los Angeles
SungHee Oh – International Affairs Director, Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY ACADEMIC AND PRACTITIONER PANELS
Including panels on the following topics:
– Organizing in Repressive Regimes
– Strikes
– Organizing in the U.S. / Navigating U.S. political context
– Learning from the 1930s
– Studying the Right Wing, Comparative Perspectives
– Intersectional Approaches to Organizing
How Workers Win: Rebuilding Labor’s Power for the 21st Century
Friday, May 5, 2023
A day-long discussion of exciting new developments in the labor movement. We begin the day with an exploration of recent organizing efforts and strategies to establish or expand unions in a variety of settings, including some of the largest global employers as well as sectors where organizing is spreading rapidly.
Winning union representation is only one step towards building worker power. Beyond winning elections, workers must be able to bargain a contract, and potentially engage in successful strikes. As an alternative to elections, gains can be achieved through workplace direct action. Our second panel addresses workers’ efforts to build power through bargaining, contracts and strikes.
The third panel features presentations on how workers are building political power outside the workplace itself, through legislative campaigns, policy work, and electoral programs.
The conference also features a keynote address during the lunch hour by Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, who will offer her reflections on this important moment in worker organizing.
Speaker Information: slucuny.swoogo.com/5May2023/speakers
Session I: “Expanding the Labor Movement: New Organizing”
- Ruth Milkman – CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies – Chair
- Eric Blanc (Rutgers University): “Do-It-Yourself Unionism: Its Rise, Tensions, and Lessons”
- Larry Engelstein (formerly SEIU 32BJ): “The 32BJ Experience: Organizing Low-Wage Service Workers, Raising Wages and Expanding Benefits — the Role of Market Strategies and Institutional Power and Resources”
- Kavitha Iyengar (United Auto Workers): “Revolutionizing Higher Education Organizing: How New Organizing and Striking Changed an Industry”
- Tamara L. Lee (Rutgers University) and Maite Tapia (Michigan State University): “Worker Organizing in Response to Racialized Employment Practices at Amazon”
Session II: “Building Workplace Power: Bargaining, Contracts and Strikes”
- Stephanie Luce – CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies – Chair
- Sarita Gupta (Ford Foundation): “Organizing for a Better Democracy through New Models of Collective Bargaining”
- Carlos Aramayo (UNITE HERE Local 26): “When We Strike, We Win? Reimagining the Strike for the Twenty-First Century”
- Ben Wilkins (Union of Southern Service Workers): “Whatever It Takes: Building the Union of Southern Service Workers”
- Bob Master(formerly Communication Workers of America – District One): “Rethinking the Strike: Labor’s Most Powerful Weapon”
- Yadhira Alvarez (Workers United, SEIU): “Winning at the Bargaining Table: Lessons for New Organizing”
Session III: “Building Labor’s Political Power”
- Samir Sonti (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies) – Chair
- Veena Dubal (Hastings College of the Law, University of California): “Organizing Against Data Extraction at Work: Lessons from the On-Demand Economy”
- Jeremy Blasi and Aaron Greenberg (UNITE HERE Local 11): “Organizing L.A.: Power and Politics in Los Angeles’s Tourism Sector and Beyond”
- Puya Gerami(Yale University / SEIU 1199 New England): “Building Strategic Alignment at the State Level: A Case Study from Connecticut”
- Nikil Saval (Pennsylvania State Senate): “Organizing and Elections: Reflections on the Inside-Outside Strategy”
Luncheon Keynote
- Jennifer Abruzzo (General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board)
- Ellen Dichner – CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies – Chair
Carry It On: The Radical Imagination — Past And Present – November 2021
Rethinking Immigration – Faculty Conference – May 2020
Working-Class New York* Revisited – April 2021
Our Economy! Economic Democracy And System Change – April 2021