ILR Directory

Ken Margolies has worked in and for the labor movement since 1972.

Training and consulting for unions: For more than 15 years at the ILR Extension Division at Cornell, Ken Margolies has used his labor union experience to train and advise union members, officers, staff, delegates and stewards. His current specialties are union organizing, member mobilization, management skills for union leaders, organizational change and strategic planning. He has organized conferences, and taught credit classes as well as non-credit workshops on a wide variety of union related topics.

Group facilitation, building unity: He has also facilitated decision-making and planning meetings for executive boards and other groups within unions. Ken helped develop lesson plans on diversity for use by unions and has worked with the NY State AFL-CIO and Central Labor Councils on immigrants' rights.  Ken developed and co-taught workshops on uniting divided unions.

Education and work history: Ken grew up in Queens NY and attended NYC public schools. In 1968 while working for Emery Air Frieght, Ken first joined Teamsters Local 295 in New York . He graduated from the Cornell   ILR   School with a BS in Labor and Industrial Relations in 1971.  He earned a MS in Labor Studies from the University of the District of Columbia in 1986 by attending night classes while working for CWA.  He is currently enrolled in the Masters of Professional Studies degree program offered by Cornell in New York City.  He is studying subjects such as organizational behavior and human resources to increase his ability to help union leadership in their role as managers within their organizations.

Service Employees International Union, Local 715, San Jose, CA. After graduation he worked as a union representative for a growing and dynamic public employee local of SEIU in San Jose, California. While Ken was a field representative and senior field representative at Local 715 SEIU, the union negotiated ground-breaking contracts, took militant actions over staffing and other issues and grew dramatically.

Association of Flight Attendants, Washington , DC. Ken worked for a brief stint as a National Bargaining Representative and Research Associate at the Association of Flight Attendants negotiating contracts under the Railway Labor Act.

Communications Workers of America, Washington , DC. During the 1980's Ken worked for the Organizing Department of the Communications Workers of America. Working out of the CWA headquarters in Washington  DC , Ken helped set up the first national organizing department in CWA history. During his over 6 years at CWA, Ken supervised and worked on private and public sector organizing campaigns in many parts of the US including the historic elections that brought 32,000 New Jersey State Workers into CWA in 1981. When Ken left CWA to work at Cornell in 1986 he was the CWA Organizing Director.

Cornell University NYSSILR, NYC. For over 7 years at Cornell Ken provided training, consulting and advice to a wide variety of unions in the NYC area. Along with New York based union organizers Ken formed an organizers forum at Cornell that brought organizers together for workshops, discussions and conferences.

Teamsters, Washington , DC . Ken left Cornell on a leave of absence to work in the Education Department of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington D.C. during the Ron Carey administration. As Associate Director and then Education Director, Ken helped produce training videos and other materials, conducted training academies and worked closely with trusted locals. These efforts were directed at building union strength, membership participation, and confidence in the union.

Training videos produced. One of the videos Ken helped produce is "Turn It Around" a popular video used by many unions and labor educators around the US and Canada promoting the organizing model of grievance handling. Two other Teamster videos Ken helped produce, "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" and "Power at Work" played a significant role in the year long education and mobilization program that culminated in the successful UPS strike.

Return to Cornell. After almost four years at the Teamsters Ken returned to work at Cornell providing labor studies programming in the mid-Hudson Valley and in New York City.

Local 1199 United Heathcare Workers East, SEIU Leadership Development Campaign: Ken served as co-director of the Local 1199  United Heathcare Workers East, SEIU, Leadership Development Campaign (LDC) along with another Cornell Extension Faculty member, Jessica Govea Thorbourne, now deceased.  The LDC  was a ground-breaking multi-year program to train thousands of Delegates, Organizers and Officers to meet the challenges of a growing dynamic union in the health care and human services industries.

Strategic Planning.  Along with other Cornell colleagues, Ken has worked sucessfully with several large New York based unions to help faciliate strategic planning and organizational change.