Recent successes, on a local and regional scale, show a resurging strength in Labor in the South, according to the half-dozen speakers at the 2nd annual Northwest Arkansas Labor Spring Teach-In. Some two dozen people attended the conference Saturday afternoon April 20, 2024, at the Fayetteville Public Library’s Ziegler Room.
UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965 and the Northwest Arkansas Central Labor Council once again co-hosted the free public event. Enough cleaning and repairs allowed the library to open its events wing shortly before the 20th — a small fire days earlier had caused widespread smoke damage (“Fire Prompts Library’s Closure” with alternate link).
Walter Hinojosa, president of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council, served as emcee.
Leading off the program was UA Associate Professor of History Michael Pierce, a Local 965 board member, detailing the rise and fall of progressive labor policy in the state from World War II to the end of the Bill Clinton governorship. Mike integrated into his remarks that morning’s death of former Gov. and Sen. David Pryor, a friend and mentor of Clinton.
April Reisma, president of the Arkansas Education Association, highlighted the year’s challenges and successes of K-12 and higher-education professionals. She emphasized the need of having an unified, organized voice for educators and support staff.
Speaking openly but without being named, an employee of UA food services, a division of Chartwells Higher Ed, discussed problems workers there are facing along with organizing efforts.
Ben Pollock, 965 vice president and director of communications, discussed how media strategy allowed the Local to organize opposition to a proposal to privatize the several hundred custodial and grounds employees on UA’s Fayetteville campus. The administration ultimately withdrew its plan.
Several speakers noted how workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen plant voted to join the UAW in an election ending Friday the 19th, a regional (Southern) victory for labor.
Jessica Akers Hughes, president of the state’s largest labor federation, Arkansas AFL-CIO, spoke on Zoom from Little Rock to summarize the activities of various unions statewide, noting how workers in Arkansas should be encouraged by the VW victory.
Rene Lara, director of State and Local Legislative Issues for the AFL-CIO, closed the conference with a global look at labor issues in this presidential election year. He spoke to the group on Zoom from Washington, D.C.
The Northwest Arkansas Labor Spring is part of a series of similar events being held on or near college and university campuses throughout the nation. Dubbed Labor Spring, these events are organized with the help of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and the Labor and Working-Class History Association.
In 2023, #LaborSpring comprised more than 80 events in 32 states, including NWA. It “is a diverse, nationwide movement unifying workers, educators, environmentalists, activists, elected leaders, community members and more in a multiracial effort to demand justice on the job, racial equity and maintain the public good,” according to the initiative.
A teach-in is an informal forum developed in the mid-1960s to educate on a complex contemporary topic.
UA-Fayetteville Education Association 