Tag Archives: labor relations

Marie Francois Finds Her Voice at SLU

It took a while—and support from her DC37 union educational benefits—but Marie Lodescar Francois is ready to raise her voice … and perhaps a few roofs.

“I believe in lifelong learning. And DC37 offers lifelong learning and professional development, free of charge,” said Marie. “Education can be life-changing. DC37 knows that.”

A native of Haiti, Marie moved to the U.S. in 1983. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from City College of New York, Marie took a job with NYC Transit. “They had a special program called Transit Corps of Engineers,” Marie said.  They selected newly graduated college students with at least a B GPA. I guess Transit was looking for a new generation of high potential employees—“digital natives”—to bring new ideas to the organization.” Marie currently works in the Car Equipment Division involving New Technology Trains, which are all systematically controlled by software. Continue reading Marie Francois Finds Her Voice at SLU

Praise for Murphy Institute via DC37

The latest issue of the DC 37 newsletter features a column by Murphy Institute alum Moira Dolan singing high praise for Murphy programs, faculty and students. Dolan is senior assistant director at the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Department and recently graduated from the Murphy Institute, in part thanks to assistance from the DC 37 Education Fund. She writes:

Because of my work in the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept. the Labor Studies Program at CUNY was a perfect fit[…]

Some of my favorite teachers included Ed Ott, who taught public sector and public policy, and who told many fascinating anecdotes from the past; Ruth Milkman, who taught labor and immigration; Steve Jenkins from SEIU 32 B-J, who instructed us on corporate research methods; and Josh Freeman, who taught labor history.

As compelling as these educators were, my fellow students were even more interesting. Through them, I got to know what it’s like to work at other unions — or be represented by other unions.

To read the full article, click here.

ALR Project and China’s Mingde Institute at Collective Labor Disputes Conference

This post was originally featured at alrexchange.org.

China’s Mingde Institute of Labor Relations and CUNY’s Advancing the Field of Labor Relations (ALR) program collaborated for the second time to present a Comparative Collective Labor Disputes Conference between the U.S. and China in Changsha in April 2015. More than 40 Chinese leading scholars, local union officials, governmental arbitrators, and labor attorneys attended the conference. Many active figures in China’s labor relations field participated as speakers and discussants, including professors from Peking University, Wuhan University, Shanghai Business and Finance, Capital University of Business and Economics, China Institute of Industrial Relations, Nanjing University, Sun Yat-san University, and researchers from the local MOHRSS arbitration department from Hunan, Shanghai, Guizhou, etc. Representatives from ILO also commented at the conference.

Representing the U.S. was Diane Frey, Senior Research Consultant at CUNY ALR, who spoke on labor organizing in the U.S., and Richard Fincher, Fellow and Instructor at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University, who presented on the U.S. arbitration and mediation system.

You can read more (in Chinese) at:

http://www.jttp.cn/a/report/info/2015/0428/6799.html

Introducing: ALRexchange.org

Murphy’s Advancing the Field of Labor Relations Program seeks to broaden and strengthen communications and exchanges between China and U.S. universities and unions. 

www.ALRexchange.org is an English-Chinese bilingual website, developed by Murphy’s Advancing the Field of Labor Relations Program to serve as a hub of resources for both academics and practitioners in the field of Labor Relations. More than five hundred searchable bilingual bibliographies, contract languages, training materials, relevant Labor Relations articles and U.S.-China comparative curriculum materials for the study of labor relations have been posted and shared in our website. Find it on our resource page.

The website also includes “Labor in the News”, featuring news from the labor field in the U.S., China, and worldwide on a weekly basis. To further this unique comparative perspective, the team also tweets these updates via Chinese social media, Weibo, to interact with our Chinese audience directly. Continue reading Introducing: ALRexchange.org