Reflections and learnings from the NLLI program
On Friday, June 24, I said goodbye to roughly 25 labor leaders as we departed the tiny hamlet of Cutchogue, New York, for destinations across the country. We had just completed the final week of Cornell’s National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI), an “intensive year-long leadership development program for top-level national leaders in the labor movement and the broader movement for worker justice,” according to its website.
Our cohort included elected leaders and high-level staff members from labor unions and workers’ rights organizations in several economic sectors. It also included participants who, like me, work at university-based labor centers. Although we all came from very different contexts, we had a shared goal of developing our leadership in order to build a more powerful movement for social justice, led by and rooted in the multiracial working class.
Participants gathered in person for three different weeklong retreats. The first retreat looked at the individual practice of leadership. This provided me an opportunity to deeply examine who I am, what I believe, and how this drives me as a leader - both positively and negatively. The most impactful portion of this week was about leading with vision. It was powerful to think deeply about why I do this work, what type of world I want to build, and how this can shape my day-to-day practice.
Our second retreat focused on driving change within an organization. At its core, the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative aims to position labor unions as positive change agents in the fight against climate change and inequality. To do this, we must understand how our partner organizations function and how we as a team operate. Without this understanding, we cannot move an agenda for change.
The third week was about broader movements for social change. Leading an established institution, like a trade union or a labor center, is in many ways different from leading social movements meant to unsettle the status quo. How can we build healthy, thriving organizations while also being responsive to - and learning from - the disruptive movements pushing for similar goals in the streets? How can we lend our institutional heft to support organic leaders on the ground and help turn movement goals into long-lasting policy change? These are just a few of the questions that animated our time together this past June.
The final retreat was especially important to the work we do at the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative. Our charge is to support unions as they figure out how best to engage with the larger movement for climate justice. We also work to set a policy agenda that fundamentally strengthens labor unions in this process by creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality, unionized, and community-sustaining jobs. During the final week, I was fortunate to sit on a “participant panel” where I spoke about our work. It was both gratifying and illuminating to hear others comment on our work and how it intersects with other fights in the labor movement.
Throughout the program, I also took on a leadership project meant to strengthen our LLC team. For this project, I chose to deepen our team’s engagement around workforce development. A transition to a green economy will create millions of new jobs, many of which will require workers to develop different skill sets. Further, we see this transition as an opportunity to rebuild our economy and provide career opportunities to the frontline communities most affected by the climate crisis. To do this well, we must invest heavily in workforce development, such as apprenticeship-readiness programs, union apprenticeship centers, and agencies at various levels of government. My primary focus was - and will continue to be - developing our understanding of these programs and making sure we are a helpful resource for our union partners as they grapple with these questions.
The curriculum and instruction from the Worker Institute’s Labor Leadership team was invaluable. But the deep relationship-building I was able to engage in during my time at NLLI was equally important. At its most fundamental level, the labor movement is about relationships. It's about forging bonds of solidarity with the people around you to create a better world for working people. Throughout the program, I had countless conversations with incredibly thoughtful leaders from around the country. This included many people who are deeply engaged in the type of workforce development and just transition work central to my project.
I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in NLLI. I learned about essential tools to use in my work, reflected deeply on my own leadership practice, and forged incredible bonds that I will draw on throughout the rest of my career in the movement. I can’t wait to continue using what I’ve learned to advance our work in creating an economy that is sustainable both for the planet and its people.