Jeffrey Grabelsky : Biography
Jeff Grabelsky is the Director of Cornell University's Union Building Strategies Program. He develops and delivers education and training programs and provides research and technical assistance to help union leaders respond strategically to significant new challenges. The programs he has worked on have reached over 300,000 unionists nationwide.
Jeff began his career in the labor movement working and organizing in the steel industry in 1973, has been a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) for thirty years, and is the former national organizing director of the Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO).
After September 11, 2001, Jeff represented the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York on the World Trade Center Emergency Project Labor-Management Partnership. That project was completed months ahead of schedule, millions of dollars below budget and, most remarkably, without a single life-threatening injury.
After Hurricane Katrina, Jeff worked with building trades leaders in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans to plan and launch a Gulf Coast Workforce Development Project that involves pension fund investments of $1 billion in residential and commercial construction, and career opportunities for Gulf Coast residents impacted by the disaster.
Jeff has written widely on current labor issues, including "Building a Future Together: Worker Centers and Construction Unions" (Labor Studies Journal, Spring, 2008), "Construction or De-Construction? The Road to Revival in the Building Trades" (New Labor Forum, Winter 2007), “A New Alliance for New York State: A Progress Report on the Labor Movement's Restructuring” (Working USA, Spring 2007), “Standing at a Crossroads: The Building Trades in the Twenty-First Century” (Labor History, Fall 2005, co-authored with Mark Erlich), and “Building and Construction Trades Unions: Are They Built to Win?” (Social Policy, Winter 2005). He is co-editor of Up Against the Open Shop - New Initiatives in the Building Trades, co-producer of the Construction Industry Audio Project, and co-editor of The Campaign Guide: Organizing the Construction Industry.
Jeff also co-authored the trainer's manuals for the UBCJA and IBEW national steward training programs, COMET (Construction Organizing Membership Education Training), COMET II (Worksite Organizing with COMET Activists), MEMO (Membership Education and Mobilization for Organizing), and the AFL-CIO Voice at Work Membership Mobilization Programs.
Jeff received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, his M.A. in U.S. Labor History from Syracuse University, his M.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, and his Journeyman Electrician Classification from the IBEW.
