Leadership Development in Labor Organizations ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

Effective, successful leaders make a difference in any context and leadership in labor is no exception. Yet the nature of leading organizations of workers is especially challenging. Leaders of unions are responsible for running organizations that are structured horizontally and vertically. By definition, unions function best when they are both democratic and decisive. Furthermore, labor leaders must contend in the modern-day political economy of global capitalism. In particular, workers in the United States who are engaged in concerted activity to form a union of their own choosing are confronted by corporate anti-union sentiment that is unmatched among the so-called industrialized western democracies. If you couple this with our nation’s systems of discrimination—historical racism, social inequities, and class divisions—the context for labor leadership to flourish is daunting. This class will consider this context, case studies of effective union leadership, and the core competencies and skills of democratic and decisive union leadership.