NY US/CS SP2021 Celeberation

The Labor and Urban Studies
teams welcome you to the
Spring 2021
NY Union and Community Semester Virtual Celebration




1
Program
−Welcome— Gladys Palma de Schrynemakers
−Slide Show— −Community Semester
introductions, Crystal Joseph
−Union Semester introductions, David Unger
−Open Mic— Students, Mentors, Faculty Members,
Family, Community


2
Intern
Adam Ramirez Andrea Alexa Hidalgo Andrew Riggio Camila Salvador Deborah Alves
Eva McGill
Ian Ezinga
Ivey Lowe
Jaleel Parchment Kelsey Head
Renjia Huang
Host Organization
NYC Mayor’s Office—Inclusive Economic Development and Business Innovation
NYC Mayor’s Office—Workforce Development—Technology
Good Old Lower East Side
NYC Mayor’s Office—Workforce Development—Career Advancement
NYC Mayor’s Office—Public Engagement Unit
NYC Mayor’s Office—Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives
NYC Mayor’s Office—Center for Youth Employment Hunt’s Point Alliance for Children
NYC Mayor’s Office—Young Men’s Initiative
NYC Mayor’s Office—Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises—Special Projects
NYC Mayor’s Office—Democracy NYC


Community Semester Vlogs
(click the photos to open the two videos and meet
our amazing cohort)
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Intern
Blerina Hoti Elliot Colbert Frances King
Hallam Potts
Kevin Curtin
Max Bienstock
Maya Garcia- Fisher
Travis Sanderson
Noah Siegel
River Wasserman
Veronica Little
Host Organization
United For Respect
Professional Staff Congress/ CUNY
New York Professional Nurses Union (NYPNU)
The NewsGuild of New York
Worker Justice Center of New York
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE)
Housing Justice For All
Brandworkers
IATSE Education and Train- ing Department
Lead Mentor(s)
Angela Williamson Lopez, UFR Amazon Deputy Director
Bettina Damiani, Legislative Director
Eileen Toback, Executive Director
Nastaran Mohit, Organizing Director
Marybeth Seitz-Brown, Interim Organizing Director
Emma Kreyche, Director of Outreach, Advocacy, and Education
Andrea Callan, Interim Co-Executive Director
Todd Stoner, Staff Development Coordinator
Justin Molito, Organizing Director
Cea Weaver, Campaign Coordinator
Gabriel Morales, Interim Executive Director
Robyn Cavanaugh, Assistant Director Patricia White, Director


Blerina Hoti,
United For Respect
5
We had the pleasure of bringing on Blerina Hoti to our team over the past few months! Props to her for being able to bal- ance out schoolwork and her internship with us, all while moving through a pandemic world. It speaks to her charac- ter and commitment to labor work.
Blerina was able to bring energy, passion, creativity, and so- cial media smarts to our campaign - and which for those who don’t know, social media is one of our biggest tools for organizing workers
Blerina’s time with us was far too short, but we appreciated every minute of it and sincerely wish her the best in all fu- ture endeavors. We know Blerina will go on to do great things.
Best of luck Blerina, and congratulations!
“Stepping into the labor movement with United For Respect has been a great
opportunity and learning
experience. I thank and
appreciate everyone at UFR for guiding me through this experience.”


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Elliot Colbert, PSC-CUNY
“Elliot did it all! From wrangling spreadsheets, to writing tweets, to policy research. Thanks Elliot for helping us tackle political endorsements, the state budget campaign and getting the New Deal for CUNY off the
ground.
The PSC couldn’t have gotten through the semester without you!”


“When I enrolled in Union Semester, I made the deliberate decision to deepen my connections to the CUNY community and the labor movement as a whole. I had no idea, however, that in so doing I’d find myself at home in an organizing family of union members and staff who share my passion for public education and the people who make it possible.
But that’s exactly what my internship placement with the PSC has provided: the chance to have a hand in shaping our campaign to transform higher ed in New York and make CUNY the best possible place to work, teach, and learn, all alongside some of the most devoted and heartfelt organizers imaginable. Thanks so much to Bettina, Tiffany, and the Legislative Committee for hosting me, and to my SLU community for spending this transformative semester together.”
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Frances King, NYPNU
“Frances has been an incredibly valuable member of our team, right from Day 1. In just a short time, Frances developed and facilitated a lunch and learn
to review the employer's new paystub system, and updated one of our most popular handouts—a roadmap to understanding how to read members' paystubs, she put together a membership demographics report, scouted out some critical resources for our membership as well as leadership, played a role in our new
delegate training, and is working on a collective bargaining agreement comparison report—all critical projects as we prepare for negotiations this fall. She's done great work and has had the best attitude about
it all. Frances' work will be so impactful for a long time to come at our union.”


“Working with NYPNU gave me a better understanding of the inner-workings of a union and how they fight to represent their members. My mentors Eileen and Kristie were extremely kind, informative, and inspiring. They challenged me with important projects and allowed me to present my findings to the delegates. I'm grateful for the semester I spent with them!”
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Hallam Potts, NewsGuild
“Hal has touched nearly every major campaign in our local these past few months, from the fight for a union for tech workers at the New York
Times, to digging into the greatest contract victories in the Gannett newspaper chain, to being there
for the action at Conde Nast as they bargain towards a strike. He's helped with tasks big and small to support all of this work behind the scenes, all with curiosity, humility, and a collaborative spirit. We will miss him!”


“Interning for the NewsGuild has been a great experience,
and an amazing opportunity to work with and learn from such dedicated and skillful organizers.
I'm incredibly proud of the work they're doing and have hope for the future of media organizing.”
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Kevin Curtin, Worker
Justice Center of NY
“Upon joining the Worker Justice Center of New York as a union semester intern, Kevin quickly became an integral and indispensable member of our team. He played a key role in our successful legislative campaign to Fund Excluded, helping to garner support from local business owners and coordinating work with coalition partners in the Hudson Valley. Among his other contributions to our work, Kevin organized and hosted a bilingual webinar on Cesar Chavez and the Future of Farmworker Organizing in New York State. We are grateful for the opportunity to host Kevin this semester and hope his time with WJCNY has been valuable and fulfilling.”


“Working with Emma & the Worker Justice Center of NY was an amazing experience. I got to learn the ins & outs of how a legislative campaign works. Most importantly, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to coordinate the Mid-Hudson Region of the Fund Excluded Workers campaign that won $2.1 billion for undocumented workers without work during the pandemic, the first state-run unemployment fund for undocumented workers in American history. WJCNY taught me lessons I will never forget and gave me skills that I will continue to use to make a difference in the labor movement. Thank you again to Emma & all the great people at WJCNY.”
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Max Bienstock, SEIU
“Max did a fantastic job – he is
smart, thorough, timely. He asked
great questions, got up to speed
quickly and fit right in with our
team and the local union staff. In
addition, Max helped run our
social media accounts—Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter—
including on major days of action
like the San Francisco Janitor
strikes this year. Max pioneered the idea of re-telling the story of our campaigns—how they started, how many workers have unionized, what they have won— to encourage new online participation and he helped draft the text for our janitor video projects re-telling our story. He was a great member of our team and we will miss him!”
“It was a pleasure having Max on our Team and he was
the ultimate Teammate. Max was able to have some tough conversations that were both educational and informational
and did a great job with both. He progressed every week and his understanding of what we were doing continued to improve. We will definitely miss Max being a part of our Team and thank you for allowing it to happen. Max will be a great Organizer and look forward to seeing his contribution to Labor."


“My internship
with SEIU taught
me so much about
union organizing
from signing up
new members to
supporting a strike
for a better contract. I learned how to communicate with members and nonmembers and how to use public opinion to support a tough contract fight. I also received first hand
experience with a new organizing campaign including recruiting my first member to the union!”
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Maya Garcia-Fisher &
Travis Sanderson, Writers Guild
“Zooming in from Minneapolis, Maya impressed me with her willingness to ask questions and be open about struggles she was having. Too many people I’ve known are afraid to ask questions and because of that, don’t
do as well as they could and don’t learn and grow as much as they could. Maya will do well if she continues to have that openness. I hope what Maya learned about sleuthing for information is helpful in her future endeavors.”
“Zooming in from Las Vegas, Travis impressed me with his intuitive grasp of the analytical side of research. He had good instincts about which nuggets of information about our target companies were really meaningful. He also quickly absorbed a lot of higher-level information about the media business, and responded well to the feedback I gave him on earlier iterations of his projects. I appreciated his knowledge of media as it is today.”


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“My time with the
Writers Guild of
America East has
been such a valuable
experience! I've
learned so much
about the world of labor and organizing.”
“The internships at WGAE was enlightening in honing tools for effective strategic research, which
I imagine will be
employable and helpful in a future career in labor.”


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Noah Seigel,
Housing Justice For All
“Noah managed the chaos of Housing Justice for All with a calm and can-do attitude!”


“Thanks to Cea and Sumathy,
I learned a ton about community organizing and
Albany politics.”
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River Wasserman,
Brandworkers
“It's been a gift to work with River these past few months that flew by way too fast!
River quickly adapted to Brandworkers team structure and supported critical roles in ally organizing, outreach, communications and research. Working independently, River uncovered invaluable material on a company where workers are launching a new organizing campaign. River's contributions to the research profile of this company sub- stantially strengthened our organization's understanding of the boss's strengths and weaknesses, in turn putting workers in a stronger position to fight and win when their campaign goes public. I've enjoyed drafting meeting agendas, brainstorming action plans, building systems
for collaborative research, and bouncing many ideas around with River.
When River wasn't sure how to do something she was always down to
try to figure it out, and in this way we've learned A LOT together.”


“Thank you to Rose,
Gabriel, and Winnie
who provided immense
support and back-
ground knowledge to
help me deepen my
understanding of how
my work contributed to
the growth of worker
power in New York
City, and to Esmi and Diana who shared their organizing wisdom and expertise with me throughout my internship placement.
I'm sending out a huge, warm hug to my Union Semester friends who have made this experience so worthwhile. David and Maureen have been invaluable resources to lean on during this semester, and I can't thank them enough for
providing that foundation.
Thank you everyone!”
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Veronica Little, IATSE
“Being an intern in a pandemic isn’t easy, but Veronica was up to the task. Best wishes from Pat, Robyn Jen and Hannah – your colleagues at the IATSE International.”


"What a trip. I will not soon forget the weeks working with Robyn and the whole IATSE team. What a tremendous team and incredible opportunity for a union novice like myself. I learned so much and got to see course work in action. Loved it. Lived it.
Don't want to leave it."
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Our Partners
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Deputy Mayor For Strategic Policy Initiatives


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Special Thanks
To all members of the Staff and Faculty of the
CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies who play a role in making NY Union Semester and Community Semester a reality and a success— we cannot thank you enough!




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