F-ILR Connections newsletter revised final mechs.indd - ILR School ...

Getting Off the Escalator (continued from page 3)
that allow for useful research connections:
labor movement revitalization,
directed at six major innovative
strategies of contemporary American
unions; comparative labor movement
revitalization, building on his work with
American unions in conjunction with
parallel research teams in four additional
countries (UK, Germany, Italy, and
Spain); and a combination of both to
examine a new unit of analysis—urban
labor movements, with a focus on
coalition building—together allowing a
combined local, national, and global
perspective. One of several current related
initiatives Turner is working on is the
Pierce Fund Conference on Strategies for
Urban Labor Revitalization, which took
place in Ithaca on October 1 and 2, with
a focus on union campaigns in large,
midsize, and global cities in the United
States and abroad.
His research is framed and extended
in the work of a talented group of
graduate students—with the participation
of associated faculty and undergraduate
students—known informally as the
Global Democracy Research Group.
Around a common theme of labor
movement revitalization, research ranges
from global governance to national
politics of urban coalition building.
Especially gratifying for Turner is the
energy and initiative of the graduate
students, who have helped shaped the
research agenda and plan the workshops,
presentations, and conferences. Most
significant in this regard is the ongoing
“Transatlantic Dialogue,” with annual
meetings and partnership relations
among ILR, the European Trade Union
Institute, and the German Hans-Böckler
Stiftung.
Turner’s teaching schedule for the
coming year includes a large class,
Politics of the Global North: Europe, the
U.S. and Japan in a Changing World
Economy, and two smaller seminars:
Labor in Global Cities and Revitalizing
Labor, A Comparative Perspective.
He will also lead a transfer-student
colloquium, coordinate the Collective
Bargaining workshop, and teach a threeweek
summer session. He somehow
finds time to chair five Ph.D. committees
as well as supervise interns, honors
theses, and independent student projects.
Labor in Global Cities was a new ILR
course offering last year that turned out
to be an experiment in teaching and
research. It grew out of the research
of a group of ILR faculty and graduate
students, who focused on target
cities and assessed labor movement
revitalization. This encompassed an
examination of politics, organizing,
focus in this new area of examination.
Turner describes the balance between his
leadership in introducing material and
laying the groundwork and his students’
help in developing the course as elusive
but essentially one of its greatest
strengths, reflective of coalition building
in itself.
It’s no secret that students are
the most enjoyable part of Turner’s
experience at ILR. In recent years,
he finds undergraduates are more
socially concerned and engaged with
activism ranging from anti-sweatshop
to environmental and antiwar efforts,
“My advice to any ILR student is to get some workplace
experience you can apply to whatever you are learning
bargaining and coalition building in
the selected cities. Each student picked
a city of particular interest and set out
to become an expert on that city’s key
unions, corporations, politicos, and labor
conflicts. In doing so, and in sharing
the results of these investigations in
class, both students and professor were
presented with an opportunity to develop
and analyze a broad picture of new union
vitality (or a lack thereof).
Turner considered last year a test
run and spent some time analyzing and
thinking about the design and its results
to develop adjustments that will augment
the success of the course this year. Active
student participation in the initial design
and as the course progressed was one key
element to its success. The small group
research was also a positive aspect of the
course. Several weeks of readings and
discussions of important works, some
of which were selected by the students,
provided an appropriate background on
the role of labor in global cities. Turner
felt that the course was very successful,
in spite of what may have been a
rambling journey across various themes
as the class tried to develop analytical
in the classroom,” says Turner.
and in campus groups such as COLA
(Cornell Organization for Labor Activism)
and SCALE (Student Coalition Advocates
Labor Education), for which he serves
as faculty adviser. “My advice to any
ILR student is to get some workplace
experience you can apply to whatever you
are learning in the classroom. Get off the
escalator, try different things, and avoid
premature career decisions.” This same
advice, given to Turner at a young age
by his high school track coach, certainly
turned out to be right for him. He got off
the escalator, had a variety of workplace
experiences, and is now immersed in
teaching and research where he sees
himself connected with the real world
and in a position to do some good.
Turner was a lifelong Californian
before coming to Cornell in 1990, when
his children, Eric and Jennifer, were six
and two. His family became an Ithaca
family. This small town, friendly and
green, has been a great place to raise kids
and a fine place to live. Turner’s wife,
Kate, has found a new life here as a social
worker, and after long, winding career
paths, the Turners plan to be Ithaca
residents for a long time to come. ■
2 ■ ILR Connections/Fall 2004 www.ilr.cornell.edu