ImaginingAlternatives
A Moment of Challenge and Opportunity
UALE Annual Conference
National Labor College
Silver Spring, MD
April 15-18, 2009
New since the Conference
Some photos from the conference have been uploaded to this site. A lot more photos can be seen on Picasaweb. Many thanks to Ken Kroeger, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, for the photos.
A number of the papers and presentations given at the Conference have been made available by the authors and can be downloaded from this site. Most of them can be found here.
UALE, the United Association for Labor Education, is made up of university-based, union-based and community-based labor educators. Participants from all three of these groups will be presenting at our 2009 Conference. The conference will reflect the work of the different populations and contexts that these three kinds of labor educators work with. It will include research papers, case studies and theoretical materials; teaching demonstrations, examples of tools, performances, workshops, curriculum samples and strategy sessions. In addition, the Labor Studies Journal will be sponsoring their own special sessions within the conference.
Finally, we will be presenting UALE annual awards to outstanding contributors to the field of labor education
In 2009, anticipating that important changes will be taking place in our social and political environment, we have asked our presenters to focus on alternatives for labor that may or may not emerge from those changes.
Conference presenters will describe research, education strategies, historical precedents or theoretical constructs that address three general types of alternatives:
1. Alternatives that are emerging within the U.S. labor movement
2. Alternatives that are emerging in Europe, Asia and the global South;
3. Alternatives that have not yet emerged, but may be needed to replace existing structures and models that are failing.
In addition to being a forum for presentation of research and academic work, one of the major purposes of the UALE Conference is to provide an informal setting for union-based, community-organization based and university labor educators to meet and discuss the strategies they use to help build the labor movement.
From the economic crisis to the environment, from immigration to the war in Iraq, from candid discussions around racism to new solidarity building efforts, from the fallout of the Bush administration to developing strategies of working with a new administration, workers and their unions have important issues to confront.
How, as labor educators, might we meet these challenges? What teaching approaches have we developed – or do we hope to learn – to do this work?
All of this and more will be presented, discussed and debated at the 2009 UALE Conference.
The Conference Program Book is still available for download.
For details of Breakout Sessions, click on "Breakout Sessions" in any of the time slots below. A list of Task Force, Caucus and Committee meetings is also available.
| Day/Time | Event | Location |
| Wednesday, April 15 | ||
| 5:00 - 8:00pm |
Registration/Welcome Table open Various taskforces and caucuses will have meeting times or contact information posted at the registration table. |
Mezzanine, Kirkland Ctr |
| 3:00 - 5:30pm |
UALE Executive Board Meeting |
Kirkland Ctr, Rm 9217, 2d floor |
| 5:30 onward |
Task Force Meetings:
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria (or take out on trays) |
| 6:00 - 7:00pm | Dinner | Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria |
| 7:30 - 8:30pm |
New Participant Welcome
Welcome and orientation to UALE for new participants. All are welcome. |
Solidarity Hall C, Kirkland Ctr |
| 8:30 - 10:00pm |
Films
|
Kirkland Ctr Rm 9232-33 |
| Thursday, April 16 | ||
| 7:00 am - 8:00am |
Breakfast Immigration Task Force Meeting (co-chairs: Deborah Rosenstein & Susan WInning) |
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria
|
| 8:30am - 5:00pm | Registration table open | Mezzanine, Kirkland Ctr |
| 8:30am - 9:30am | Breakout Sessions |
various rooms, Kirkland Ctr & North Classroom Bldg. |
| 9:45am- 10:00am |
Welcome
|
Solidarity Hall C, |
| 10:00am - 12:00 noon |
Opening Plenary Moderator: Phil Thompson, Assoc. Professor of Urban Politics, MIT Panel:
|
Solidarity Hall C, |
| 12:15 - 1:15pm |
Lunch & lunch meetings
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria Rm 9170 (1st floor) |
| 1:15 - 2:30 pm | Breakout Sessions | various rooms, Kirkland Ctr |
| 2:45 - 4:15 pm |
Plenary: Challenging Racism in Workers' Organizations The historic candidacy of Barak Obama forced U.S. worker organizations to confront racism within our ranks to win an election, but can we bring a similar anti-oppression perspective to ongoing education and the everyday practices of our organizations? This plenary will examine a variety of strategies employed in Brazil, Canada and the U.S. Panel:
|
Solidarity Hall C, Kirkland Ctr |
| 4:30 - 5:45 pm | various rooms | |
| 6:00 - 8:00 pm |
NLC Archives Tour By pre-conference sign-up only; contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
by arrangement with Lynda DeLoach |
| 6:30 - 8:00 pm |
Reception Note: The reception Thursday night will include beer and wine but not dinner-type food. Please eat in the cafeteria which opens for dinner at 5:45. |
Kirkland Ctr, Mezzanine |
| 8:15 - 11:00pm | Films
|
Kirkland Ctr, |
| Friday, April 17 | ||
| 7:00 - 8:00am |
Breakfast
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria |
| 8:30am - 5:00pm |
Registration table open | Mezzanine, Kirkland Ctr |
| 8:00 - 10:45am | Breakout Sessions | various rooms |
| 11:00 am -12:00pm | various rooms | |
| 12:00 noon - 1:30pm |
Lunch
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria Rm 9170 (1st floor) |
| 1:30 -2:45 pm |
|
various rooms |
| 3:00 - 4:00pm | various rooms | |
| 4:15 - 5:45 pm | General Membership Meeting |
Solidarity Hall C, |
| 6:00 - 7:00pm |
Dinner and meetings
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria Kirkland Ctr Rm 9170 (1st floor) |
| 7:30 - 9:00pm |
Cultural Event:
|
NLC Bar |
| Saturday, 18 | ||
| 7:00 - 8:30am |
Breakfast
|
Kirkland Ctr Cafeteria |
| 8:45 - 10:00am | Breakout Sessions | various rooms |
| 10:15 - 11:30am | arious rooms | |
| 11:30 - 12:00noon | Checkout |
|
| 12:00 noon - 1:30pm |
Closing Lunch and Awards Presentation
|
Solidarity Hall D, Kirkland Ctr |
|
1:45 - 3:30pm
|
Plenary: The Employee Free Choice Act: A Challenge for Labor Educators Moderators: Sheldon Friedman, AFL-CIO and Elissa McBride, AFSCME Panelists:
UALE members are putting together this session to present the most recent research and teaching strategies related to the crisis in organizing and bargaining that has forced demands to reform labor law. |
Solidarity Hall C, Kirkland Ctr |
| 4:00 - 5:30pm |
UALE Executive Board meeting |
Kirkland Ctr, Rm 9217, 2d floor |
Thank you to the Berger-Marks Foundation
for hosting the lunch for the Women’s Caucus at UALE 2009
The Berger-Marks Foundation's mission is to bring the benefits of unionism to working women and provide resources, training, and financial assistance to women organizers and working women who want to organize other women into unions through training, research and other resources. It was established with a bequest from the estates of Edna Berger, the first female lead organizer for The Newspaper Guild-CWA, and her husband, the legendary Tin Pan Alley song-writer Gerald Marks. Its website (www.bergermarks.org) offers the latest news – updated regularly – including tips, tactics, legal issues, events, a multitude of resources, and effective strategies women organizers use. Grants are available to support organizing efforts and related activities. For more information, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
An innovation of this year's Conference was a Curriculum Display, where a number of people and programs showed and shared curricula and teaching materials for workshops and courses that they have taught. To see what was on display, click here. Some of these materials may still be available if you contact the authors.
Awards were givem for Best Book, Best Article in Labor Studies Journal, Outstanding Contribution to Labor Education, Lifetime Achievement, and best paper from a new labor educator (New Generation Award).
To read about the award winners, click here.
