Union Leadership Institute Milestone

Union Leadership Institute students this summer will benefit from scholarships funded through a portion of the $65,000 raised at the institute's tenth anniversary event in Manhattan.

Hundreds of union members, leaders, activists, staff and others from labor groups such as Domestic Workers United joined institute graduates to celebrate at the scholarship benefit this spring.

Roberta Reardon, keynote speaker and a 2006 graduate of the institute told the audience that participating in the AFL-CIO/Cornell program "pulled me out of my small world and exposed me to the courageous doers and thinkers in the larger labor movement, from across New York state and nationally, as well."

"The diversity of the institute's students is one of its major strengths -- one of the best things that happened is that it wasn't a classroom of me," said Reardon, national president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Another speaker, Cornell ILR School Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Extension Lois S. Gray, said the event would help the institute "be able to continue its work that is so essential for workers, their unions and all labor organizations."

Founded in 2001, the institute is a partnership among the New York State AFL-CIO, the national AFL-CIO and ILR. It is a one-year, executive-level training and education program for labor leaders and top staff.

Institute participants share ideas, analysis and issues while developing new tools, sharpening skills and building ties with other labor leaders movement from across New York and the Northeast.

The mission of the New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute (www.ilr.cornell.edu/uli/) is to develop knowledgeable, strategic-minded labor leaders who have the highest professional standards.