AFSCME Members Graduate in First Class of Labor College

Silver Spring, Maryland

Some 30 years after quitting high school, Larry Shade was in the first graduating class of the National Labor College here. “I owe where I am to AFSCME,” said the organizer who was part of the team that brought some 2,600 of San Diego’s Sharp HealthCare nurses into the AFSCME fold.

The National Labor College is the realization of the American Federation of Labor’s first president, Samuel Gompers. In 1899, he bought land in Baltimore on which he planned to build a workers’ college. Now, 100 years later, Labor has its own college where workers receive credit for their life experiences as well as formal course work. Forty-two students were in its first graduating class on July 24.

Another 46 students received degrees from Antioch College which has worked in partnership with the George Meany Center for Labor Studies for the past 25 years. The program was built to meet the needs of busy union leaders and activists. Students spend one week in residence every six months for intensive course work; they then complete a rigorous schedule of assignments before returning to campus for the next courses. Earning a degree takes discipline and dedication.

Shade believes his experience working with the nurses nudged him into the program. But it was because of AFSCME’s Joey Parisi Scholarship — honoring the late AFSCME organizer — that he could afford to finish. “It’s the best scholarship any union provides,” he says.

The program has made him a better organizer. “I use the Labor History class all the time when I’m in organizing drives,” says Shade. “I see the page in the book — or the classroom — in my mind. I have my labor law book in my car every day.” He learned new approaches to problem solving from his fellow students. It helps him overcome the isolation organizers often experience. “Sometimes,” he explains, “you feel like you’re fighting the war by yourself.”

By Susan Ellen Holleran