The Workers’ Rights Institute of Georgetown Law will host a workers’ rights forum as part of Labor Spring, a nationwide series of more than 60 labor teach-ins and events on campuses and in communities nationwide, launched by the GU Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

The GU Workers’ Rights Institute Labor Spring forum will lift up workers rights and labor law in a moment of sweeping organizing and activity among the nation’s working people, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The forum will build on a newfound public appreciation for working people and their organizations in the pandemic. Public support for unionism is at a historic high – 71% approve of unions, the highest level since 1965. The forum will also lift up the need for more labor education in our schools and communities. It will highlight how already vulnerable workers (especially workers of color) have been made more vulnerable since the pandemic through inadequate wages and safety protections, abusive monitoring causing a proliferation of workplace injuries, surveillance of union activity and unlawful termination, and laws and policies on captive audience speeches allow for coercion and intimidation and the silence of worker voice.

Speakers will include: 

Sara Steffens, Secretary-Treasurer, Communications Workers of America (CWA)

Erica Smiley, Director, Jobs with Justice (JWJ)

Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH), (by video) 

Aleah Bacetti & Thanya Cruz Borrazá, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU)

Elissa McBride, Sec-Treas, AFSCME (invited) 

Live captioning will be provided. Additional accommodation requests related to a disability should be sent to lawrsvp@georgetown.edu. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests. A captioned version of this presentation will also be made available shortly following the event.