Labor Center Advisory Board

LABOR CENTER ADVISORY BOARD

I. Minutes of the Meeting on January 28, 2010

Members Present: Patricia Aguirre, ILWU, Kelly Candaele, LACCD Trustee, John Delloro, Dolores Huerta Labor Institute, John Grant, UFCW 770, Nancy Oshima, LA Labor Federation, Peter Olney, ILWU, Lou Zigman, Arbitrator

Guest Present: Tina Littleton for Linda Gonzalez, Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service

Staff Present: John McDowell, Director, Kathleen Yasuda, Associate Director, Lou Siegel

Welcome and Self Introductions

M/S/P Approved Minutes for the Meeting of January 28, 2009 John McDowell reported on motions acted on from the 2009 Advisory Board Meeting:  Kathleen Yasuda was hired as a full-time Instructor starting Aug 1, 2009.  The Labor Center is facilitating a partnership between HERE, union hotels and the TT Culinary Department for paid internships, on hold due to the economy. Assisting with a partnership between IBEW 18 and the TT Workforce Development program.  The Labor Center developed a new course LS 136: When the Paycheck Stops offered for college credit in Summer, 2009 with 47 students enrolled.

New Faculty - Jimmy Gomez, UNAC/AFSCME and Mindy Chen, former SEIU organizer.

Scholarship Funds  30th Anniversary Dinner – Lou Siegel reported the successful dinner raised $29,042 for Max Mont Scholarships. John thanked board members for their help. With fees rising the funds will help more students take multiple classes as they work toward graduation.  Chuck Hogan Scholarship – Funds were transferred from the National Labor College to the LA Labor Federation and the first scholarships were awarded in Fall 2009.

Budget Update Labor Studies enrollments were strong in 2009, with 998 in Winter/Spring and 800 in the Fall. However budget cuts have reduced classes across Trade Tech including 3 Labor classes this spring. With students flooding the college, Trade Tech’s class size is 40, so we need to boost enrollments to avoid cuts of “low demand” classes as measured by class size.

“State of the Center”  Two Labor classes are being offered for the 3rd semester at Helen Bernstein High School which give students an introduction to the labor movement.

 On-line Labor Studies classes help reach students who are too busy or distant, drawing from across the state and allow ALL students, not just the outspoken, to participate in discussions.

1 M/S/P Expand the Labor Center On-Line program with new classes, new instructors to teach on-line, and by promoting the program across the state.

 The Labor Center gained approval for LS 4 Labor in America to fulfill a GE Graduation Requirement, offered in the day to educate “regular” Trade Tech students about Labor.

 Labor Center teaches AFT Faculty Guild, Student Interns about labor and how to organize around issues important to them such as budget cuts and student fee increases. These 55 interns also visit Legislator’s offices and also work in Labor’s campaigns.

 The Labor Center is offering a class for Staff of Legislators in cooperation with the L.A. Labor Federation. Originally proposed by Assemblyman Mike Eng who co-taught the first two classes, the course covers the basics about unions, both historical and current issues.

New Courses

M/S/P Develop a new, 1-unit course in Steward Training. M/S/P Update existing 1-unit credit courses in Union Communications to include all aspects of electronic communications, such as webpages, social media, and web conferencing. M/S/P Develop two new non-credit classes: Union Leadership and Meet The Arbitrators

Accreditation Kathleen reported that Trade Tech had been put on probation by the Community College Accrediting Commission (40% of CA community colleges are under sanction by this overly zealous commission). Like the rest of the college, the Labor Center is working hard to get off probation, implementing several critical accountability measures.  Labor Center staff completed a Program Review, a formal strategic plan, required every three years resulting in items to be addressed as action items at this meeting.  Update all Labor Studies Course Outlines every three years.  Faculty will be formally evaluated regularly, in addition to the student evaluations we already do for all of our classes. LC faculty have been asked to document any classes, conferences, conventions they attend or teach as part of their Professional Development requirement.

Fall Schedule The proposed Fall 2010 Schedule was presented and discussed.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:15 PM