Yana Kalmyka

• Assisted SPoT Coffee workers with their union drive through helping establish and train a worker-led Organizing Committee, supporting the authorization card signing process, and planning a community support rally. 

• Spearheaded a series of interest meetings around building meaningful community-labor partnerships in Western New York through a process called Bargaining for the Common Good. 

• Helped the Area Labor Federation host meetings for union leaders about the Green New Deal and the importance of collaboration between climate justice work and labor organizing. 

• Sat in on a collective bargaining session at Kaleida and witnessed negotiations about a contract serving 7,200 workers in hospitals across Buffalo. 

Visiting the Colored Musicians’ Club and learning about the union history associated with founding that radical space. (Also, standing on the same ground Ella Fitzgerald once stood on.)

Hearing from Aitina Fareed Cooke about the intersection of art and activism, and practicing using spoken word as a tool of movementbuilding and connection.

Poetry, literature, bluesy rock music, building worker power.

Community organizing, campaign strategizing, relationship-building, collaborative problem-solving, conducting research.