This is a conference for organizers and scholars to bring their experiences and analyses together.
Scholars, labor practitioners, and activists from across the country will convene to share new ideas, research and best practices, and to identify points of connection and collaboration. This conference will focus on how the current moment makes it clear: Now is the time to acknowledge the links between racial justice and economic justice. Engaging this history and our present, with a special focus on efforts in the Southeast, can help us all get free.
Plenaries will include Jobs With Justice Executive Director Erica Smiley and speakers from new efforts to organize higher education. Workshops will feature campaigns to build worker power and climate justice in the South, strategies on industry standards boards, and corporate attacks on public education.
Register here for the in person conference ($110/50 early bird rates): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-labor-research-and-action-network-conference-lran-in-person-tickets-318774191187
LRAN has a $199 room rate at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta (a union hotel). Please book here to access this reduced rate: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/ATLRA/G-JWJL
Virtual workshops will be held via Zoom both afternoons, and plenaries will be livestreamed. Registration is free with a suggested donation. Registration for the virtual conference is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-labor-research-and-action-network-conference-lran-virtual-tickets-320299543557
NOTE: Full refunds will be available until June 10th
Click here for the conference agenda:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gs8rkazM_DnICXvBw_ARSG_N1q1dA3N3/view?usp=sharing
Tuesday June 21st
9-10:15am Opening plenary (livestream): Atlanta Campaigns
10:30-Noon Workshop Session 1
12-1 Lunch
1-2pm Plenary (livestream): Erica Smiley, Executive Director, Jobs With Justice
2:15-3:45 Workshop Session 3
4-5 Workshop Session 3 (VIRTUAL)
5-6:30 Happy hour
Wednesday June 22nd
9-10:15am Membership meeting
10:30-12 Workshop Session 4
12-1 Lunch
1-2 Plenary (livestream), Organizing in Higher Education
3-4 Workshop Session 5 (VIRTUAL)
4-5 Workshop Session 6 (VIRTUAL)
New this year—Our first LRAN song competition:
What: Worker Revival Song Competition
➢ $1,000 awarded for Work Song of the Future
➢ $250 (2 prizes) awarded for Best Work Song Cover
Who: Musicians, singers, songwriters and songkeepers
When: Submissions open during the month of May. Five finalists will be notified by June 9th. Final qualifiers aired and voted on live on June 22nd.
Where: Submissions should be submitted via google form, as both written lyrics and a video performance of the song. Note: We are looking for clear audio on the videos, they do not need to be cinematic! Set design is appreciated but will not be part of our assessment. Final selections will be streamed and voted on live from Atlanta. Voters can text their vote in or vote online from anywhere in the country.
Why: Song, and especially singing in a collective voice, has always been a tool that working people have used to fortify their movements, and to practice solidarity and collective action. This competition offers space to celebrate and revive classic work songs, as well as encourage contemporary musicians and songwriters to develop original work songs that speak to the struggles of the labor movement now and in the future.
Entry form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffVjxI3mzVGNaLe7pC9pkMljcePpTvQvO9ujhftBLyV75euQ/viewform
Thanks to the following organizations and individuals for sponsoring this conference:
American Federation Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
American Federation of Teachers
Communications Workers of America
DePaul University Labor Education Center
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University
Microsearch
Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
Service Employees International Union
United Steelworkers
Washington State Labor Education and Research Center
Worker Institute at Cornell University
