Charles Taylor, coordinator for the Research Recruitment Program in the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, encourages college students interested in working for the labor movement to take part in an upcoming summer school training on strategic corporate research.  

Preparations are under way for an annual training on strategic corporate research, which has served as an effective point of entry for students who are interested in working in the labor movement. The 2008 summer school will be June 8–13 in Ithaca, N.Y. Registration deadline is May 9 and credit scholarships are available. 

The annual training, which began in 2001, is co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research (CSR) and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University. Strategic researchers are key to union organizing and bargaining campaigns, providing essential support by gathering and analyzing information on companies, industries and issues.   

ILR and CSR conducted a study earlier this year that followed up with many of the hundreds of students who participated in the summer school from 2001 through 2007. Says CSR Director Ken Zinn:

A majority of the former students that we located are currently employed as union staff, mostly as researchers and campaigners. The class has served as a great door opener to the labor movement for students while providing a solid source of new strategic campaigners for unions.

Professor Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research at ILR, agrees.

This course helps seed the labor movement with a steady stream of talented young researchers dedicated to helping unions run more effective strategic organizing and bargaining campaigns in an ever more complex global environment. 

For a registration form and other information, contact Sarai Narvaez at 607-254-4749; send an e-mail to scr-school@cornell.edu; or visit the website.

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