[URPE] [NYC] URPE at Brecht, May 2: ORGANIZING POTENTIAL OF THE RETAIL SECTOR

[Ruth Indeck]

NYC Union for Radical Political Economics and the Brecht Forum present:

ORGANIZING POTENTIAL OF THE RETAIL SECTOR

Tuesday, May 2, 7:30pm

Brecht Forum, 451 West St., 212-242-4201
(West Side Highway between Bank and Bethune)

See website for directions: www.brechtforum.org

$6/$10/$15 suggested donation

Please choose a flyer to download and post:
http://urpe.org/RetailBW.pdf (print with black ink) or
http://urpe.org/RetailColor.pdf (full color)


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Speakers: DAVID BENSMAN, MATHIAS BOLTON, JEFFREY EICHLER, LIZA FEATHERSTONE
Moderator: EDAN DHANRAJ

U.S. manufacturing employment is declining, and jobs in many other 
sectors are being outsourced to countries with cheaper labor costs and 
eliminated through "lean and mean" technological change. In this 
climate, union organizers are asking themselves where to organize next. 
Our panelists feel there is great potential for organizing workers in 
the retail sector, which includes massive distribution centers as well 
as stores. Edan Dhanraj, our panel's organizer and chair, and RWDSU 
research director Mathias Bolton have both worked in these distribution 
centers, and Mathias has been involved in organizing drives in both 
distribution centers and retail stores. RWDSU organizer Jeffrey Eichler 
led a recently-successful drive to unionize immigrant workers in a chain 
of Brooklyn sneaker stores. David Bensman has done extensive research on 
the retail sector and will describe how it functions and how it has 
changed over the years. Where Wal-Mart goes, others will follow -- it is 
the largest employer (and retail employer) in the U.S. Liza Featherstone 
will talk about the experiences of people who have been organizing 
workers at Wal-Mart.

About the Speakers:

David Bensman is a professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations 
at Rutgers University, and author of several books about labor, 
education, and social policy.

Mathias Bolton is the Director of Research for the RWDSU (Retail, 
Wholesale and Department Store Union). For 10 years he worked at a 
unionized retail distribution center where he was a rank and file 
activist and elected union representative.

Jeffrey Eichler is the coordinator of Retail Organizing in NY for the RWDSU.

Liza Featherstone is a journalist who writes frequently on labor and 
student activism for The Nation, as well as many other publications. She 
is the co-author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of a 
Movement (2002). In 2004, she published Selling Women Short: The 
Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart, a history of Dukes vs. 
Wal-Mart, the largest civil rights class-action suit in history.