Friends and colleagues:
Here is a report on some of the connections between the labor
movement and interested sociologists -- and information about how you
can help to further build and strengthen those connections. We
(finally) have a directory of sociologists committed to labor, the
AFL-CIO Organizing Institute is sponsoring a reception on August 18 at
the New York A.S.A. convention, and the Organizing Institute (OI) also
wants to arrange dozens (hundreds?) of one-on-one or small group
meetings to tell people about its work and to forge connections.
SOCIOLOGY LABOR NETWORK DIRECTORY
This letter is being sent (by both email and snail mail) to members
of the Sociology Labor Network, and to others we hope will be
interested/sympathetic. Members of the Sociology Labor Network (that
is, anyone who returned a sheet) are also receiving a bound copy of the
directory, with information about 75 other sociologists interested in
working with the labor movement. If you aren't yet a member but want to
join, or you know someone who should be a member and isn't listed here,
get those forms filled out and returned. We'd like to double our
listings by the end of August, but in order for that to happen each
person reading this letter needs to work their networks.
Copies of this directory have been requested by, and given to, a
number of union staff, both research directors and organizers. It's
also a good way to learn about other sociologists with labor interests.
AFL-CIO RECEPTION FOR SOCIOLOGISTS
At the A.S.A. convention in New York, the Organizing Institute is
sponsoring a wine and cheese reception for sociologists to discuss
what's happening in the labor movement and how to get involved. Richard
Bensinger, formerly head of the Organizing Institute, and currently the
AFL-CIO's first ever Director of Organizing, will speak, along with
brief remarks by recent graduates of the Organizing Institute, Union
Summer activists, and by at least one sociologist. This will be an
event -- Mark your calendars.
AFL-CIO reception Sunday August 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Hilton Hotel, Rendezvous Trianon Room
Featuring
Richard Bensinger, AFL-CIO Director of Organizing
recent graduate(s) of the Organizing Institute Union Summer activists
a sociologist Wine and cheese
MEET WITH ORGANIZING INSTITUTE STAFF
The Organizing Institute (OI) trains future organizers for the AFL-
CIO and its member unions. About half those trained are college
students or recent graduates, many of them sociology majors. (See the
article in the May/June Footnotes.)
OI staff will be attending the A.S.A. convention in force, and want
to hold dozens -- preferably hundreds -- of meetings with sociology
faculty and students. We are helping to coordinate the sign up for
these meetings, which will be on Sunday August 18 and Monday August 19.
To sign up for a one-on-one (or small group) meeting email or call Dan
Clawson (413-545-5974; clawson who-is-at sadri.umass.edu). Meetings will be held
in hotel suites; while the OI can (probably) accommodate people who sign
up at the meetings, it will greatly simplify their planning if as many
people as possible sign up in advance. (Sign up in advance even if you
do NOT yet know a specific time when you will be available to meet; give
us contact information and we'll get back to you closer to the
convention.)
Several things will happen at those meetings.
First, you'll learn about the OI in general -- the kind of students
they are looking for, what's involved in OI training, what graduates do.
Second, the OI staff will learn about you, so that when they are
next in your area they will call on you, and perhaps you can facilitate
their other contacts and activities.
Third, depending on where you are located, you might learn about
organizing drives and activity in your area, and how you could connect
through research, student contacts, or by helping to build community
support.
Fourth, we hope these meetings will help energize both the
sociologists and OI staff who participate.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO -- ORGANIZE!!
This is not a closed group. Our aim is to help build the labor
movement, and to build a network of sociologists committed to working
with labor. It's also not a bureaucratically organized, top-down
operation. Don't wait for someone else to do things, or assume that
everything is under control:
TAKE THE INITIATIVE. JUST DO IT.
Here are six steps you can take:
1. Recruit at least three new members for the Sociology Labor Network;
get them to fill out and return forms
2. Plan to attend the AFL-CIO reception August 18 6:30 p.m., AND
organize at least three others to do so
3. Sign up in advance to meet OI staff at the New York A.S.A.
convention AND recruit at least three others to join you or to
arrange their own meetings.
4. Figure out other steps that should be taken to make the A.S.A
convention, or the Sociology Labor Network more generally, a
success. Write us or other members of the network about your ideas,
and/or just get things started. For example, the OI would love to
get a table for literature and contacts at the convention -- does
some group already have a table, and could they share their pace?
5. At the Sunday evening reception we will talk about next steps to
take, but (with luck) that will be a large meeting not ideally
suited to getting things done. If you would be interested in being
more actively involved, and would like to attend a smaller planning
meeting (perhaps in one of our hotel rooms, or in the OI suite),
email and let us know that.
6. Make contact with the labor movement in your area and begin working
together.
The primary contact for forms, to send names, to sign up, for info, etc.
is Dan Clawson (413-545-5974, clawson who-is-at sadri.umass.edu) but you
can-should write or call any of us, or anyone else in the directory,
with ideas, questions, or suggestions.
Dan Clawson, clawson who-is-at sadri.umass.edu, 413-545-5974, Sociology, Univ of
Mass. Amherst MA 01003 (SEND SIGN-UPS, REQUESTS FOR FORMS, ETC. TO DAN)
Rick Fantasia, rfantasi who-is-at smith.edu, 413-585-3504, Sociology, Smith
College, Northampton MA 01063
Tom Juravich, Labor Relations and Research Center, Univ. of Mass.
Amherst MA 01003
Ingrid Semaan, semaan who-is-at soc.umass.edu, Sociology, Univ. of Mass. Amherst
MA 01003
Judith Stepan-Norris, jstepann who-is-at uci.edu, Sociology, UC Irvine, Irvine CA
92717
Sudhir Venkatesh, savenkat who-is-at abby.amherst.edu Chapin Hall, 1313 E. 60th
Street, Chicago IL 60637
PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH OTHERS.