Labor and social justice folks from around the Valley will gather this weekend at Holyoke Community College for the annual Western Mass. Jobs With Justice conference.
The conference begins on Sat., March 6, at noon with an hour of registration and “schmoozing,” as organizers put it. After an opening plenary chaired by state Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst), attendees will break up into groups for “Who Decides” workshops that will address ways to change who holds the decision-making power on key issues like jobs, education and healthcare.
At the end of the day comes a keynote speech by Rob Witherell, an organizer with United Steelworkers (and UMass Amherst alumnus), who will discuss that union’s new agreement with Mondragon Corp., an organization of worker-owned co-operatives, based in Spain’s Basque region. Since its modest start more than 50 years ago, Mondragon has grown to become a major force (with about 100,000 members at 260 co-ops in more than 40 countries, according to USW), and a model for democratically run, worker-owned businesses. In October, USW announced a “framework agreement” with Mondragon to establish co-operatives in the U.S. and Canada.
In a press release announcing the agreement, USW President Leo Gerard described it as “a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada … Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants. We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”
A full schedule of conference events and registration information is available at wmjwj.org. The conference is free, although WMJWJ is asking folks who can to donate to attend a dinner and dance at the end of the day.
