Movie Marathon: #Labor & #Adjunct Organizing…#NormaRae & #KeithHoeller

…A film festival! Let's make a marathon out of it. More from Barbara Wolf's A Simple Matter of Justice, plus classic labor movies. Here's a 2013 list from Freelancers Union by Sara Horowitz: 

... [of t]he best labor-related movies that'll make you want to fight for the underdog. Who doesn’t love movie night? People often ask me about my favorites, so I’ve put together a list of my top labor-related movies. Many of them are based on actual events. Of course they’ve been dramatized, Hollywood-style, but they're still great stories. Documentaries will come next. Enjoy!

.... Norma Rae (1979), this one's for @mmstrikesback

Chicago @LaborNotes Conference

…@MMStrikesBack reflects on the #ContingentFaculty Session…

Late at night on April 3rd, I found out through a conversation with a friend that the 2014 Labor Notes Conference was starting the following day, April 4-6 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, near Chicago O’Hare. Joe Berry would be leading a session for contingent faculty and labor organizers from 2:00-5:00 pm. My friend said we could go for free as long as we emailed Mr. Berry. As I had just finished reading his book Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education, I felt it was fate itself that had given me the opportunity to hear him speak, and I emailed him to ask if I could attend. Berry wrote back right away and said that he would be expecting me tomorrow at the session.


I arrived late because I was parked in a lot that was very far from the hotel, and another late arriver and I could not figure out how to get over to the actual meeting.

It was quite funny, really, both of us trying to climb over a wall of sorts, with a steep incline, but he was very friendly and cheered me up.

At one point, the man said, “Well, you're a very pessimistic type of person, aren't you?”

And I said, “Well, I'm an adjunct. I've been through a lot recently.”

Anyway, when we got there I couldn't find the workshop, and the people who ran it were not happy I hadn't registered, but one woman in a maroon sweater showed me where the room was. Because I didn't have a program, though, I didn't even know the title of the session. But I knew I was looking for Joe Berry who had changed my life with his book. I told her about it, and that was enough information for her to help me find the room.