United Association for Labor Education

Present: Chuck Davis, Mike Wisniewski, Bob Ginsburg, Elise Bryant, Nancy Bupp, Tracy Chang, Edgar Moore, Tess Ewing, Michelle Kaminski, Nancy DellaMattera, Bruce Nissen, Dennis Serrette

Agenda Items
1. Partnership with Voice@Work and UALE
2. Midwest School for Women Workers
3. Request from Mike Tavares regarding on-line access to Labor Studies Journal
4. New Deal Preservation request from Stan Rosen
5. War Resolution and conference
6. Associate membership question
7. Discussion of officers up for re-election
8. Conference in April
9. Visibility and promotion
10. Officers’ reports

Regular business was suspended while Mary Beth Maxwell gave us an overview of American Rights at Work. After she departed a motion was made and seconded for the UALE Executive Board to work with the Organizing Task Force to identify two Labor Centers to act as pilot projects in conjunction with American Rights at Work to publicize violations of workers’ rights.

The minutes of the Business Meeting and the Executive Board Meeting from April, 2003 were distributed and read. A typo on page 2 of the Business Meeting minutes on April 12, 2003 was noted – John Logan not John Lund was added to the board of the Labor Studies Journal. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the meetings.

Nancy DellaMattera led a discussion on adding money to the Women’s Summer Schools.

Treasurer’s Report – Tess Ewing – motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. She brought detailed reports. It is to be noted for the record that Tess is doing an outstanding job.

Secretary’s Report – Nancy Bupp – the directory is out now on CD and will be mailed to members soon. The motion was made and seconded to approve the Secretary’s Report.

Conference Report – Michelle Kaminski - a motion was made and seconded to raise the conference fee for members to $225 and for non-members $250. The capabilities will be there this year for on-line registration and the ability to take credit cards.

Instead of printing the abstracts, they will posted on-line. Video night will be abolished due to lack of participation. Culture night was discussed at length. Bob Ginsburg, Tracy Chang, and Elise Bryant will help Michelle think and plan something different for next year.

A motion was made and seconded to have the last Plenary session revolve around the theme of the Economy, Election and the War. Dennis will try to get someone to speak who went to Iraq and can talk about first-hand observations. The discussion also mentioned the “big picture and connecting the dots.”

There was a request from Mike Tavares concerning on-line access to the Labor Studies Journal. Bruce stated that it would nix the deal with Project Muse that generates money for the LSJ from downloads so it needs to stay as it is now.

There was a request from Stan Rosen regarding how UALE could help publicize the New Deal Preservation Association. Stan has a proposal for the conference that should be accepted, therefore the UALE does not need to get involved in this.

A motion was made and seconded that the Executive Board will support the program Voice@Work to identify 10 institutions who are willing to push the process at the local level. Friendly amendment: insert “Executive Board will work with the Organizing Task Force to support….”

A motion was made and seconded for Chuck Davis to contact the University of Iowa to host the Midwest School for Women Workers for 2004.

Associate membership question: Nancy B. will check with the IAM, Dennis will check with the CWA, Bob will check with OPEIU and report back to the group.

Promotion and Visibility – Tess will also serve on the Strategic Planning committee and the members of that committee will meet early next year to talk about promotion and visibility.

A motion was made and seconded to amend the by-laws to include an Editor or a person from the Editorial Board from the Labor Studies Journal to serve on the Executive Board of UALE as an additional member. The person will be chosen by the members of the LSJ Editorial Board.

April 13: UALE Executive Board Meeting

Chuck and Tess will work on delinquent dues members for 2003.

Travel Expenses – motion: For the purposes of the Executive Board and other assigned meetings, UALE will set aside a pool of $3000 to be used for travel expenses for Board Members who are unable to obtain travel expenses from their institutions. Such requests for travel expenses must be approved by the UALE president. The individual amount of such expenses shall not exceed $500 per meeting.

Friendly amendment: This $3000 shall be allocated from the UALE Journal fund.

Motion approved.

Iraq war resolution discussed. Dennis is leading the charge. Chuck offers resource from his work to help with putting links and descriptions from institutions to UALE website. Katarina will contact Charlie Richardson and Morty Simon and is willing to work with Dennis on how to "spread the word" and co-ordinate for the meeting next year. The question was asked where the proposal would go. Check with Chuck on screening with the proposals and listserves, etc.

Labor Studies Journal – proposal to run up to 3 sessions at next year’s conference – a sharply focused topic. Motion approved.

Organizing Task Force of Labor Studies Journal - wants to run a session at the next conference. Friendly amendment – to go out to all task forces.

Central Labor Council Task Force – wants to run a session at next year’s session – be given a high priority. Motion approved.

Motion was made to hold next year’s conference in Chicago. Motion approved.

Nancy Della Mattera spoke on the Labor Council Task Force – develop curriculum to target Labor Councils – 2 people in each region to do training.

Katarina spoke about "Voice at Work".

Women’s School – Michelle brought up the issue of raising the price of the women’s summer school.

Strategic Planning Committee - Bruce asked to excused from this committee. He asked Diane to replace him. She agreed to do so. Chuck asked to expand the committee to include Michelle. She agreed to this.

Mail list rentals – motion approved on Tess’s proposal.

Affiliate membership problem – Chuck will contact Tess about this.

Diane asked about maintaining records in a database such as Excel or Access so lists could be queried.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.

Meeting called to order by President Chuck Davis at 2:45 pm.

A moment of silence for fallen Labor Educators was led by Bob Bussell.

Chuck Davis presented Kent Wong with a gift (a framed painting by Rick Flores) in recognition of hard work and dedication.

The Board was introduced.

Minutes of the 2002 Board Meeting were approved (correcting a typo on the last page).

The President made some comments on the dismantling of the AFL-CIO Education Department and the formation of the Strategic Planning Committee formed in UALE to meet with the Education Directors and forge ahead.

VP Michelle K.

Turnout for conference was good
Proposals submitted were good – numbers up from last year. Offered thanks for proposals submitted
Suggested having poster sessions next year to allow more papers to be accepted
Offered some tips for submitting proposals
Asked for volunteers and to please fill out the evaluations for the conference

Some comments from members:

Not enough demonstration workshops

Need more research – urge against shifting away from poster sessions – (clarification – not shift away – it is a way to add more papers to the conference)

War not on the agenda

Is there a process that unions can ask for a topic at the conference?

Thanks for Michelle’s hard work

VP Dennis:

Spoke on anti-war activities

Discussed emails and conference calls in planning for conference and reading proposals

Secretary Nancy

Spoke on process of correcting addresses and information for new directory that will be coming out on CD this year. Asked members if there were any more corrections

Asked members if anyone knew of a union shop that could burn CD’s. Several people responded that they would check and get back to her

The question of union membership was asked. Membership with the AFT is being researched.

Treasurer’s Report – Tess Ewing absent – Chuck Davis reporting

Report of number of paid and delinquent members and institutions

Officers’ reports were approved.

Committee Reports

Labor Studies Journal Report - Bruce Nissen

Editorial Board changes - Elissa McBride and Stephanie Luce added. Fred Glass did not run again. John Lunden added to Board.

Doing well as a Journal – subscriptions are up – finances are good – have 10 articles in the queue at this time

On the horizon
o an annual prize to best article for the previous year
o an ad exchange in other journals that fit with the mission of the LSJ

Labor Studies Journal report was approved.

Institutional Membership Report – Diane Thomas-Holliday

Criteria explained
29 Universities, 2 Unions, and 1 Community group not paid

Institutional Membership Report was approved.

Caucus and Task Force Report –
Women’s – Helena Worthen and Verlene Wilder – Women’s Summer School
A motion was made and approved to give $1500 to each of the 4 Women’s Summer School programs for a total of $6000.

Lesbian and Gay Task Force – Rae Sovereign – no one came to the meeting.
Report was approved.

Central Labor Council Task Force – Nancy Della Mattera
Report approved.

Political Economy Task Force – David Cormier for Bob Bruno
Report approved.

Organizing Task Force – Lynn Feekin
Report approved.

Minority Caucus Report – Edgar Moore
? will take over as chair.
Report approved.

Business – Renewal of Conference Planning Committee

Creation of Awards Committee – Ruth Needleman, Charlie Micallef, Edgar Moore, Rae Sovereign volunteered to serve.

Resolution regarding war – Dennis Serrette
Nancy Lessin – spoke on implementation and discussion at next years meeting and making sure that it happens.
Resolution approved.

Regional caucuses:

East - Need to elect representative form the East. Nancy Della Mattera was elected to replace Jim Rundle.
Midwest – Edgar Moore – grant – regional conference meeting for 2003.
South – Dawn Addy - asked if there was interest in forming an Immigration and Diversity Task Force. Motion approved.
West – Katarina - spoke on getting more people involved in labor education
East – Charlie Richardson ?- regional meeting – money to help with regional meeting.

Motion to adjourn at 4:55 p.m.

UALE Resolution of April 12, 2003
on War in Iraq

WHEREAS, labor educators have the responsibility to help workers and their families understand their world, and to encourage critical thinking among working people; and

WHEREAS, the sons and daughters of working class families who serve in the military bear the burden of this war, as well as innocent Iraqi civilians who have already suffered so much; and

WHEREAS, there is no quarrel between the working people in the United States and working people in Iraq, or any other country; and

WHEREAS, the billions of dollars spent to stage and execute this war are being taken away from our education, health care, housing programs, Social Security, and other important social programs; and

WHEREAS, this war and the "war on terrorism" are being used to justify erosion of labor, civil, constitutional, immigrant, and human rights at home; and

WHEREAS, focus on this war is being used to distract the American people from the anti-labor, anti-worker agenda that is being pursued here at home; and

WHEREAS, this war will not make us safer, but will instead fuel more terrorism; and

WHEREAS, the Bush administration and the corporate news media have provided extensive misinformation as justification for this war and the need to take preemptive unilateral action against Iraq; and

WHEREAS, the Bush doctrine of preventive war is illegal under international law and threatens the peaceful resolution of disputes among states, jeopardizing the safety and security of the entire world; and

WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has falsely equated patriotism and support for the troops with support for the war and the policies that created it; and

WHEREAS, while the Administration and Congress profess support for the troops, their actions demonstrate the opposite. For example, they have moved to cut $25 billion from the budget of the Department of Veteran Affairs, and cut $204 million from the program that supports education of children of military personnel.

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the United Association for Labor Education:

1. Opposes the ongoing war in Iraq and the policy of corporate empire-building and preventive wars of aggression to which this Administration is committed;
2. Encourages its members, and member institutions, to facilitate, promote, and participate in educational forums and mobilizations concerning all these issues and share materials toward that end;
3. Urges its members to use popular education and other creative means to explore, learn, teach, and facilitate discussion around all these issues;
4. Supports the troops by calling for their immediate return;
5. Supports efforts to repeal the PATRIOT Act and opposes any other attacks on our civil liberties, constitutional rights, labor rights, and human rights; and;
6. Endorses and supports the continuation of the work of the U.S. Labor Against the War.

MINUTES, 2003

Minutes of UALE Executive Board Meeting

April 13: UALE Executive Board Meeting

Minutes of UALE Executive Board Meeting

April 12: UALE Business Meeting

Minutes of UALE Business Meeting, April 12

UALE Resolution of April 12, 2003
on War in Iraq

April 11: Labor Council Task Force Meeting

UALE Labor Council Task Force Meeting Notes

A) Framing the Discussion-

On a Local Level

April 10: Women's Caucus Meeting

UALE Women's Caucus Minutes

MINUTES, 2003

Minutes of UALE Executive Board Meeting

April 13: UALE Executive Board Meeting

Minutes of UALE Executive Board Meeting

April 12: UALE Business Meeting

Minutes of UALE Business Meeting, April 12

UALE Resolution of April 12, 2003 on War in Iraq

April 11: Labor Council Task Force Meeting

UALE Labor Council Task Force Meeting Notes

A) Framing the Discussion-

On a Local Level

April 10: Women's Caucus Meeting

UALE Women's Caucus Minutes

UALE Resolution of April 12, 2003
on War in Iraq