Union Organizing During COVID-19: Celebrating Acts of Resistance, Survivance, Resiliency, and Social Justice

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

During COVID-19, can Union organizing bring hope, societal change, and a sense of belonging to our communities? For our panelists who are a graduate student union organizer and two teacher union organizers, the answer is a resounding YES!!! Our first guest explores the complicated issues of organizing graduate students. Of the 5,300 college and universities in the United States, why are there only 33 graduate student unions? We will explore the border lands of advocating for our rights while depending on the lifesaving funding. Our other two panelists’ resumes include lifelong participation in community organizing as active Brown Berets and will be talking about their lived realities as being the Union representatives for their middle school during a global pandemic.

Sub Unit

• Graduate Student Council

Cosponsor

• Graduate Student Council

Chairs

• Dre Abeita, University of New Mexico

• Pablo Montes, The University of Texas at Austin

Panelists

• Adrianne Nunez

• Patricia Quezada

• Dre Abeita, University of New Mexico