Labor Leadership Certificate - Chicago

Labor Leadership Certificate - Chicago

Class | Available

Rice Building 815 West Van Buren, Ste. 110 Chicago, IL 60607 United States
Suite 110
10/11/2025-4/11/2026
View Schedule
$700.00

Labor Leadership Certificate - Chicago

Class | Available

History & Power of Labor - 10/11/2025 

What does the history of the U.S. look like when viewed from the point of view of those who built the country? The class reviews working-class and labor history since the Civil War, but focuses (with films) on some key labor struggles such as the 1894 Pullman Strike; organizing in the mine and textile industries; the growth of trade unionism; the rise of the CIO and the autoworker sit-down strikes; the impact of McCarthyism on the labor movement; and the expansion of public sector unionization (1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike and the 1970 Postal Workers Strike).

Labor & Employment Law - 11/15/2025 

The class covers the basics of labor and employment laws that every union activist should know. The class reviews the laws, the agencies that administer the laws, and the effectiveness and weaknesses of the laws and their enforcement. The course covers the National Labor Relations Act and the challenges workers face in union organizing, strikes, lockouts, and contract campaigns; employment laws that impact all workers such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and anti-discrimination laws; and the Landrum Griffin Act on union members’ rights.

Steward Training - 12/13/2025 

The class will discuss how to investigate, screen, write, and negotiate a grievance; how to interview the grievant and witnesses; the multiple roles of a steward; the seven principles of just cause; and the legal rights of union stewards. The class will discuss several common grievance areas, and we will practice resolving grievances.

Collective Bargaining - 1/17/26

This class introduces the student to the process and content of collective bargaining. It addresses among other items the legal obligations to bargain, mandatory and permissible subjects of bargaining, types of bargaining relationships, and styles of bargaining and takes the student thorough multiple stages of labor negotiations. The class also examines the critical information necessary to bargain successfully. Students learn to analyze a contract, cost out a contract, develop a bargaining proposal, practice good table behavior, negotiating skills, how to use the caucus, keep records, and write appropriate contract language.

The Economics of Work - 2/7/2026 

Understanding the economy and examining your day-to-day and long-term social conditions and worker rights. How much power do you have as a worker in the US? Analyzing how the system works will position workers for better strategy and tactics in labor organizing. Topics will include the growth of “right to work” laws, gig work, and automation. We will also examine why the minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living, and current attacks against prevailing wage. We will consider race, gender, immigrant status, and the impact of globalization on changing working conditions, and how resource distribution at the local, state, and national levels matters for organizing for a better future.

Internal Organizing - 3/21/2026 

The class will discuss ways to educate, organize, and mobilize the members. Topics include collective action around grievances; confronting and overcoming divisions such as over race, gender, or immigration status; one-on-one conversations with apathetic or anti-union members; organizing contract campaigns; and organizing in support of bargaining for the common good.

Media Matters: Building Union Power through Social Media and the Press - 4/11/2026

This class will provide interactive instruction on building an effective union media strategy. Topics include building your message; writing a press release; writing letters to the editor; how to talk to the press; and creative and impactful social media strategies. The emphasis of the course will be developing inclusive media messaging that amplifies union member’s stories and voices.

Bruno, Robert
Robert Bruno

Prof. Bruno is Director of the Labor Education Program and a Professor of Labor and Employment, as well as the director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, Urban-Champaign.  In addition to publishing numerous scholarly articles on a diverse range of labor relations subjects, Professor Bruno has also co-authored numerous research reports on labor unions, workplace practices and labor and employment policy topics.

Ashby, Steven
Steven Ashby

Prof. Ashby is a full clinical professor, with a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Chicago, who has been teaching at the School of Labor and Employment Relations since 2007.

 


Kay Emmert

Fortado, Stephanie
Stephanie Fortado

Prof. Fortado is a social and cultural historian of the modern United States, with a focus on African American working class and social movement history. She is especially interested in Civil Rights and Black Power history, and in labor history, especially as it relates to women’s history, environmental history and urban history. She is co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women's Leadership Programs.

Twarog, Emily E. LB.
Emily E. LB. Twarog

Prof. Twarog earned her PhD in American History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master’s in Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her book Politics in the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in 20th Century America examines the ways in which housewives in America used food protests as political tools to gain influence both locally and nationally. She is also the author of several articles and book chapters related to the evolution of working class women’s leadership development as well as gender violence in the workplace. She is currently writing a book on the history of sexual harassment resistance in the service sector, “Hands Off: A History of Fighting Back against Sexual Harassment in the American Workplace.” She is co-director of the Regina V. Polk Women's Leadership Programs.