Ratifying the value of labor relations

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/homepage/20080225_Ratifying_the_value_of_labor_relations.html

By Jane M. Von Bergen

Inquirer Staff Writer
When longtime labor organizer Barbara Rahke came to Philadelphia in 2005, she was stunned to learn that this union town didn't have its own union-leadership school.

"For a major metropolitan area, it was weird all the way around," said Rahke, who had worked in Detroit and Ithaca, both of which had thriving labor schools to teach the nuts and bolts of union leadership.


JONATHAN WILSON / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Under director Thomas Paine Cronin, a former union chief, Comey Institute of Industrial Relations will offer classes for unions, community groups, even management to understand complexities of labor relations.


Next Monday, Philadelphia will have such a school - the Comey Institute of Industrial Relations at St. Joseph's University.

The Jesuit university and the Philadelphia AFL-CIO are resurrecting the Comey Institute, founded in 1943. It had withered away from a lack of funding just before Rahke came out of retirement in 2005 to become executive director of PhilaPOSH, a labor-funded organization for worker safety.

Enrollment is open for its first classes. Rahke will be one of the teachers for a course on worker safety.

"Education leads to more professional relationships in the collective-bargaining arena," she said. "That's what keeps bad things from happening."

FULL story at link.