TY - JOUR T1 - Providing Worker Education and Building the Labor Movement: The Joseph S. Murphy Institute of City University of New York JF - Adult Learning Y1 - 2011 A1 - D'Amico, Deborah KW - access to education KW - adult education KW - City University of New York KW - CUNY KW - Joseph S. Murphy Institute KW - labor force development KW - labor studies KW - partnerships in education KW - social justice KW - union members KW - worker education AB -

To provide equitable access to formal, nonformal and workplace learning, experts urge community, business, education and government partnerships. While membership in unions continues to decline and "opportunities for entry-level workers to become skilled workers is lessening," the partnership described in this article shows that it is possible to increase access for transit workers, health care workers, construction workers, paraprofessionals, and others to career-enhancing growth through labor-management and university collaboration. This article describes an Institute within the City University of New York (CUNY), dedicated to education for union members, the growth and development of organized labor, and the struggle for social justice. The Joseph S. Murphy Institute is named after a former CUNY Chancellor who was a lifelong champion of worker education and workers' rights. The Worker Education Center of the Institute works with labor-management joint funds to meet the workforce development needs of local industries and their workers by fostering partnerships between these Funds and CUNY academic departments that have the requisite expertise. The Institute's Center for Labor, Community and Policy Studies works with unions and their allies to convene forums and conferences that debate issues key to the labor movement, conduct labor-focused research, and produce a critically acclaimed journal--New Labor Forum. This article looks at recent research on adult degree completion, and examines what is working with labor management funds--in the context of a labor-focused Institute at a major public, urban University--which adds to strategies for supporting success in college for adult workers.

VL - 22 L2 - eng CP - 1 ER -