UMass Boston

The Boston Labor Conference

Boston Labor Conference 2025

Labor and the Left Saturday, March 8, 2025 8:30 AM - 5 PM Carpenters Center Boston Training Facility 750 Dorchester Avenue Dorchester, MA 02125

The Ninth Annual Boston Labor Conference explores the role of “the Left,” broadly defined, in building and shaping the labor movement. Our current moment of labor agitation is characterized by increased militancy, new forms of organizing (in sectors new and old), and the return of the strike. What has, is, and should be the role of the Left during a moment in which the labor movement seems well positioned -- if not yet fully able -- to organize more workers, lead militant actions, and build winning political coalitions rooted in a politics of and for the working class?

 

What role has the Left played in recent efforts to transform labor unions into more effective vehicles for organizing, mobilizing, and fighting for working people? How has the left contributed to the “new” organizing we have seen in sectors with little historic union presence? In what ways has (and has not) the Left been able to shape public debate – and how has this mattered?  The renewed influence of the Left in the labor movement has come about, in part, thanks to new organizing and institution-building on the Left itself. How have, and how do, we rebuild the Left within and outside of labor organizations as a force that can help strengthen and advance the labor movement as a whole?

 

Join us on March 8th for this important conversation.

 

Boston Labor Conference - Labor and the Left Program

8:30–9:00           Light Breakfast

9:00–9:20           Opening Remarks         

                                 Steve Striffler, Labor Resource Center, UMass Boston

                                 Chrissy Lynch, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO

 

9:30–11:00          Session One 

1A:   Leftists in the Higher Ed Strike Wave        (Anne Boyd)

  • Jack Davies  (Georgetown University, Long-Haul Magazine, DSA)
  • Fern Grear (Columbia University, SWC-UAW 2710, DSA)
  • Joseph Guidry (Boston University, SEIU 509, DSA)
  • Alex Michaud  (DSA)
  • Lucy Peterson (Univ. of Michigan, Long-Haul Magazine, GEO-AFT 3550, DSA)
  • Rendi Rogers (DSA)        

1B:   Labor, Immigration, and Internationalism     (Steve Striffler)

  • Jeff Schuhrke (Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies, SUNY)
  • Gerry Scoppettuolo (Pride at Work/Eastern Massachusetts AFL-CIO) Gene Bruskin (National Writers Union/Dramatist Guild)
  • Ismael Garcia-Colon (CUNY)

11:00 – 11:15   BREAK

11:15 – 12:45     Session Two

2A: Labor and the Left – Lessons from Our Past         (Lew Finfer)

  • Enid Ekstein (Raise Up Massachusetts)
  • Mark Erlich (Harvard University)
  • Andrew Higgins (Independent Scholar)

2B:  Left Labor Education                          (Anneta Argyres)

  • Margarita Hernandez (Grassroots Power Project)
  • Daniel Judt (Yale University)
  • Hae-Lin Choi (Communications Workers of America, District 1)
  • Alethia Jones (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies)

12:45 – 1:45       LUNCH 

1:45 – 3:15         Session Three

3A:  Labor and the Left in Our Two-Party System      (Caleb Smith)

  • Daraka Larimore-Hall (UC-Santa Barbara)
  • Robert Cassanello (University of Central Florida)
  • Alejandro Reuss (UMass Boston)

3B:  Building Political Power     (Georgia Hollister Isman)

  • Jeff Crosby (New Lynn Coalition and North Shore Labor Council) 
  • Steve Paul  (Executive Director, OnePA)
  • Maurice Mitchell (National Director, Working Families Party)

3:15-3:30            BREAK

3:30 – 5:00         Session Four        

 4:   Labor and the Left – Looking Forward  (Nick Juravich)

  • Dylan Hatch (Cornell University)
  • Union Representative (TBD), (Association of Flight Attendants),
  • Jonathan Rosenblum (Center for Work & Democracy, Arizona St. Univ)
  • Jessica Tang (President, AFT Massachusetts)
  • Maurice Mitchell, (National Director, Working Families Party)

5:00 – 5:30         REFRESHMENTS

 

 

Boston Labor Conference 2024

Boston Labor Conference 2024
Labor and the State Today

Questions of whether and how organized workers should engage the state are as old as the labor movement. Still, the pitfalls and possibilities of this engagement have been particularly stark in 2023. Amid a generational upsurge in militant labor action, a sitting president joined a picket line for the first time, just months after the Supreme Court reaffirmed its willingness to dismantle settled labor law on behalf of its billionaire benefactors. The most labor-friendly NLRB in decades has supported a wave of new union elections while Amazon and Starbucks brazenly flout the Board’s limited power to punish union busting. Labor-led coalitions have elected progressive city councilors and mayors promising reinvestment in the public good, even as the far right works to strip elected representatives of power and entrench minority rule through state-level gerrymandering and judicial chicanery. As the 2024 presidential election looms, the fraught relationship between labor and government is as crucial as ever. 

Labor and the State Today
MARCH 30, 2024
8:30am to 5:00pm

Carpenters Center
750 Dorchester Ave.


8:30–9:00 Light Breakfast


9:00–9:20 Opening Remarks


Steve Striffler, Labor Resource Center, UMass Boston Chrissy Lynch, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO

9:30–11:00               Session One
1A: Unions + Community = Power    

                                     Chair: Anneta Argyres

Cynthia Roy                (New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools)
Bryan Gangemi          (New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools)
Gino Canella              (Emerson College)
Matt Bach                  (Andover Education Association)
Jessica Wender-Shubow (Massachusetts Teachers Association - Retired)

1B: Making the State Work for Labor


                                 Chair: Alejandro Reuss


Savannah Hunter             (UC Berkeley Labor Center)
Aida Farmand                  (UC Berkeley Labor Center)
Harris Gruman                 (SEIU – Massachusetts)
Aaron Tanaka                   (Center for Economic Democracy)
Caleb Smith                      (Mt. Holyoke College)

11:00 – 11:15 BREAK

11:15 – 12:45

Session Two

2A: Labor and the Electoral Path

                          Chair: Nicole Aschoff


Jeremy DaCruz                      (Chap 3, Nat’l Conf of Firemen and Oilers, SEIU/32BJ)
Enid Eckstein                         (Raise UP Massachusetts)
Rand Wilson                          (CHIPS Communities United)
Sam Goldstein                      (SEIU and Our Revolution – Medford)


2B: Common Good for the Common Good

                                             Chair: Nick Juravich

Kevin O’Brien                     (Worx Printing Union)

James Razsa                       (Democracy Brewing)

May                                   (Circus Cooperative Café)

Sarah Assefa                    (Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power/CED)
James Cordero                (Boston Teachers Union)
Lew Finfer                        (Massachusetts Action for Justice)

12:45 – 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 – 2:45 Session Three


3A: Us Too: Feminized Labor Organizing for Power
                                                  Chair: Elizabeth Pellerito

Mia Michael                 (Wayne State University)

Lenita Reason               (Brazilian Worker Center)

André Simões               (Brazilian Worker Center)

Thomas Adams            (University of South Alabama)


3B: Industrial Policy and Labor Power
                                               Chair: Caleb Smith
Anibel Ferus-Comelo           (UC Berkeley Labor Center)
Christian Gonzalez               (IUE-CWA, Local 301 – Schenectady, NY)
Sean Sweeney                      (Trade Unions for Energy Democracy)

Maddock Thomas                (Brown University)

2:45 – 3:00 BREAK


3:00 – 4:30 Session Four

                                         Chair: Steve Striffler


Max Page                      (President, Massachusetts Teachers Association)
Deb McCarthy               (Vice President, Massachusetts Teachers Association)
Rakim Brooks                (President, Alliance for Justice)
Gwen Mills                    (Secretary-Treasurer, UNITE HERE)
Lane Windham              (Georgetown University)


4:30-5:00 REFRESHMENTS