November 2001 University Reporter

By Leigh DuPuy

labor resource center group In the aftermath of tragedy, economic slowdown, and employment layoffs, the American worker especially is in need of advocates. For the Labor Resource Center (LRC) at the College of Public and Community Service championing workers’ rights has always been the mission. LRC draws on existing campus resources to provide an integrated range of educational and research services to workers and to labor and community organizations. “We want to create interventions that improve the lives of workers and their families,” said Pat Reeve, LRC director, “and create long-time economic security for their communities.”

The center was established in 1997 to create a bridge between the university and citywide labor associations and to open a dialogue between unorganized working people and labor leadership in the Commonwealth. The enter’s roots began in the creation of the undergraduate Labor Studies Program, which was founded by Professor Jim Green in 1980. Labor research and service activities grew out of that program. The university then approved the creation of the Center as a tripartite institution, which encompasses not only undergraduate and non-degree programs in labor studies, but also public policy research and the Labor Extension Program.

“We focus our research on issues in the workplace emerging for the new century,” explains Jim Green, a member of the Labor Studies faculty. He is concerned with telling the labor story to the public in a myriad of forums. Among his numerous teaching and activism projects, he has written a book, Taking History to Heart: The Power of the Past in Building Social Movements, and created a walking tour of Boston labor history, and he has been asked by the AFL-CIO to write its labor history to educate the public on its organization.

Another arm of the center concentrates on hands-on research, affecting public policy, and whenever possible, involving University students who seek to learn related skills. “My main focus is educational development and enabling working people to gain skills and information needed to have a greater voice in their community,” explains researcher Mary Jo Connelly. She is piloting the Jobs Toolkit Economic Analysis Project, a set of interactive training and research tools for community and labor organizations.

The center also works in partnership with regional and national research institutions, including the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Randy Albelda, project director, and her associate, Tiffany Manuel, have partnered with the IWPR to develop a cost-benefit analysis of paid-family leave policies for national dissemination to policy makers. Their first report, Filling the Work and Family Gap: Paid Parental Leave in Massachusetts, informed recent legislative debates in Massachusetts on this topic.

Rounding out the center’s research agenda is a focus on contingent and non-standard work arrangements. Researcher Debra Osnowitz is collaborating with Service Employees International Union Local 285 to better understand how traditional and non-traditional employees view one another and their union.

The Labor Extension Program, as led by coordinator Tess Ewing, is a valuable resource for unprotected workers and for labor organizations. It is a statewide network, spanning four UMass campuses, which provides training, education, and technical assistance to workers and worker’s organizations.

“One of the most exciting aspects of our work are our public policy interventions,” reflects Reeve, who is a historian of public policy affecting workers’ economic and civil rights. “We also want to promote a dialogue within the university concerning the critical role of working people and their organizations in the Commonwealth’s civic life, economic development, and public policymaking.”
These dialogues and interventions have been essential throughout the Commonwealth’s economic highs and lows; LRC staffers point out that only a small percentage of workers flourished in the recent boom. Recent events have heightened many workers’ feeling of vulnerability and need for advocacy. Find out more about the LRC’s mission to help workers by visiting www.lrc.umb.edu.

Image: Labor Resource Staff: (From left to right) Jean Pishkin, administrative coordinator; Terry McClarney, CPCS professor who teaches in the labor studies program and LRC board member; Tess Ewing, Labor Extension Program coordinator; Pat Reeve, director; Jim Green, program director; Debi Osnowitz, researcher; and Mary Jo Connelly, researcher (Photo by Harry Brett).

Labor Resource Center Striving to Improve the Lives of Workers