About
Launched in the fall of 2013, the NLLI grew out of a partnership between the AFL-CIO, The Worker Institute at Cornell, and top labor educators from Harvard, Rutgers, Berkeley, Oregon, UALE, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. The vision of the Initiative is to address the strategic challenges facing the labor movement in the 21st century. The Initiative helps top labor leaders acquire and refine the knowledge, skills, and qualities needed to lead in a time when unions and working people are subjected to coordinated and well-funded attacks. The Initiative provides a space for unions, worker justice organizations, and labor educators to learn innovative approaches to the challenges of developing the critical core of leaders our movement needs.
The purpose of the National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI) is to create a community of leaders dedicated to their individual and mutual learning and development, the strengthening and transformation of the organizations they lead, and the building of a broad progressive movement that empowers working people in a rapidly changing world.
Program
Participants must be nominated and sponsored by their organizations. Nominees are in senior elected or staff positions in their organizations, with extensive leadership and oversight responsibilities for major areas of work.
The NLLI curriculum consists of three 5-day intensive retreats spread out over one year, held in different regions of the U.S.
Three thematic concentrations will be repeated throughout all the retreats, though each retreat will focus primarily on one. The three interdependent domains of leadership are
- Personal Qualities of Leadership
- Leading and Transforming Your Organization
- Building an Inclusive and Dynamic Movement
Intensive follow-up with faculty, field application, peer coaching, and network- building will take place continuously between sessions.
Outcomes
- Expand and deepen participants’ understanding of and appreciation for the principles and practices of effective leadership development which they will apply to themselves, their organizations and the larger labor movement;
- Help participants develop into movement leaders with an increased sense of unity and commitment to building the larger movement and strengthening the bonds, networks and relationships between and among themselves and their organizations;
- Provide a much needed space for leaders to reflect, think creatively and generate fresh ideas about what a 21st century labor movement can and should be to become vital and relevant to workers;
- Challenge and encourage leaders to become more critically self-aware, effective, healthy and resilient in all areas of their leadership practice – in the personal, organizational and movement domains;
- Allow leaders to expand their vision for their own organizations and the larger movement and to articulate a compelling narrative for themselves, their sectors and the society and economy;
- Assist participants in making their own organizations become more diverse, inclusive, democratic, powerful, ethical, effective and dynamic;
- Work with participating organizations to identify their most pressing needs and critical challenges and shape the NLLI so that it adds value, addresses those needs, and helps leaders meet those challenges using active learning, action research, and other approaches;
- Establish an expectation and norm among participating leaders of continuous life-long learning in a safe environment and sustained by mutual support through co-coaching and other means; and,
- Contribute to building a dynamic, powerful and inclusive 21st labor movement that can transform the society and economy so that it works for workers.
Videos
10th Cohort
In November 2023, the National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI) proudly welcomed its 10th
cohort. Launched in 2014, NLLI was created to provide union leaders with the necessary skills
and tools to address the complex challenges faced by unions and the labor movement.
The 10th class of the NLLI program is a significant milestone for the Worker Institute. What
began as an experiment of leadership training has become a premier and transformative labor
leadership program for union leaders in the United States and Canada. Additionally, the program
has played a crucial role in helping union leadership face some of the most significant challenges
in recent American history.
The class has already helped union leaders deepen their relationships with each other, explore the
challenges of leadership in the current climate, and develop new strategies for success. The
launch of the 2023-2024 NLLI class also included a panel where participants discussed what
growth means in today's labor movement. They also discussed how to talk to members about
leading through times of incredible divisiveness and how to build relationships across the
movement between unions and non-unionized workforces.
The current cohort brings together leaders of different unions and organizations across different
sectors, including trade, education, service industry, climate justice, and healthcare.
Latest News
See all Latest News about the NLLI
Faculty and Staff
- Program Coordinator
Sherrie Morales is a Program Coordinator for the Worker Institute at Cornell/ILR. She has worked for Cornell/ILR in NYC for over 27 years with various departments within ILR.
- Interim Executive Director, The Worker Institute
- Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative
Kathleen Mulligan is the Director of Labor Leadership Programs, and Co-Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative, at Cornell University’s ILR School.
- Senior Extension Associate
Tamara Robinson [she/her] is an organizational development consultant, coach, labor leader, and activist with 16 years of experience.
Contact
For more information about the National Labor Leadership Initative, please contact Sherrie Morales at sm92@cornell.edu or 212.340.2827.