Workshop Will Explore How Unions and Worker Co-ops Can Collaborate

A workshop on opportunities for collaboration between worker cooperatives and labor unions will be held in the Hadley Room of the Campus Center on Thursday, April 25 from noon to 2:30 p.m.

The workshop, “Unions and Worker Co-ops: Building Economic Democracy,” is organized by the Wellspring Cooperative, which works to create worker-owned companies in Springfield.

Guest presenter Rebecca Lurie, coordinator of the Community & Worker Ownership Project at City University of New York (CUNY), will lead a participatory workshop that looks at the ways unions and worker co-ops can work together to build economic democracy, labor solidarity, social justice and a sustainable world.

UMass Amherst is a Wellspring anchor institution, committed to buying from Wellspring businesses when possible, and a number of faculty and students are engaged with the organization’s work in Springfield. School of Public Policy faculty member Fred Rose is co-director of the Wellspring Cooperative, and Professor Lee Badgett of the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics is a longtime member of its board.

Lunch will be provided. Thee event is free and open to the public, but participants must register in advance here.