Building a movement to combat student debt, CWA offers free, public clinics in Minneapolis

November 12, 2015 by
CWA members who attended the Nov. 4 student debt clinic include (L to R) Tom Laabs, Howard Terry and Naomi Holmes.

CWA members who attended the Nov. 4 student debt clinic include (L to R) Tom Laabs, Howard Terry and Naomi Holmes.

Naomi Holmes will run out of deferments on $57,000 in student debt this winter. Howard Terry took out a $30,000 loan to finish his graduate degree at the University of Phoenix. Tom Laabs’ wife, Liz, will graduate next year from the University of Minnesota with six figures’ worth of debt.

“When that school loan comes back, it’s going to be like a house payment,” Laabs said.

But Holmes, Terry and Laabs have more in common than their daunting student debt loads. The three are taking action to get relief for themselves – and bring more fairness to the student lending industry – through a series of clinics sponsored by their union, the Communications Workers of America.

[Free, public Student Debt Clinics, sponsored by CWA Minnesota State Council and CWA Next Gen, will continue Dec. 8-10 at the CWA Local 7200 offices in Minneapolis. For more information or to register, email cwa.mn.mobilizing@gmail.com.]

The first thing clinic participants learn is that they’re not alone. About 30 million Americans carry student debt, and it’s a major barrier for many families looking to work their way into the middle class.

“It’s surprising … the number of people who came to the class who have student debt or know someone who does,” Terry said after a clinic at the Local 7200 offices last week, which drew 31 participants.

What’s more surprising, he added, is how few people with student debt – about 200,000 – are taking advantage of free government programs for student debt relief, including loan forgiveness for people who work in public service and income-based repayment plans that can reduce interest costs.

Giving people the tools they need to take advantage of those programs – without paying a third party – is a big part of the CWA-sponsored trainings, which are open to the public.

“There are a lot of scams,” CWA organizer Richard Shorter said. “You can scroll through Facebook on any given day and see the advertisements.

“These organizations promote themselves as doing a good thing, but they charge fees to do the work for you when it’s free to apply. It only takes like an hour to sit down and do it yourself.”

The best resource for more information about dealing with student debt, Shorter said, is forgivemystudentdebt.org.

Participants in the CWA student debt clinics learn how they can advocate for fairness in student lending.

Participants in the CWA student debt clinics learn how they can advocate for fairness in student lending.

The clinics also provide an overview of the national landscape around student lending, including why so many people are forced to take out loans to cover the cost of higher education and the impact student debt has on families down the line.

Laabs said he was outraged to learn the inflation-adjusted cost of attending a four-year public college had quadrupled since 1980. He planned to contact his elected representatives about making college more affordable “because it’s gotten out of whack, and the cost has become just exorbitant.”

Terry added, “We pay for police forces and all these other things that are part of the public good, why don’t we start including education in that?”

CWA members said they also learned about the need for more regulation of for-profit colleges and universities, which are oftentimes not transparent with prospective students about whether their credits will transfer to most traditional institutions.

“Basically, they’re lying to people about being able to transfer credits,” Shorter explained. “A lot of people have to start all over again someplace else, myself included.”

Next Gen, the union’s young-worker contingent, developed curriculum for the clinics after surveying members about what mattered to them outside contract language and negotiations. An issue that affects 30 million Americans, Shorter said, is ripe for organizing.

“Working with our partners, we’re trying to build a movement around student debt,” he said. “This affects everybody.”

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Stagehands’ youth movement pays off with organizing win at Varsity Theater

March 20, 2015 by

bbb75503272695698ad09fe38448f85e_400x400After an organizing drive fueled by young activists and backed by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, workers at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown have a union.

It’s the first successful organizing campaign for IATSE Local 13 in “many years,” according to Michael Abramson, co-chair of the Twin Cities-based union’s Young Worker Committee.

The National Labor Relations Board conducted the election earlier this month. Contract negotiations with the Varsity are set to begin soon, with employees seeking higher wages, benefit contributions from their employer and better working conditions.

“There are a lot of safety risks doing this work,” Abramson, who does lighting work at the Guthrie Theater, said. “So protecting the ability for someone to speak up about things they see – to say, ‘these conditions are deplorable’ – is really critical.”

[Learn more about young worker groups and how they are energizing unions across the state on the Minnesota Young Workers Facebook page.]

To start, the new unit includes just four permanent light and sound technicians employed by the theater. But the victory gives Local 13 a toehold inside the facility, where stagehands often are hired as independent contractors, and could expand in the future.

Local 13 actually collected 35 signed cards requesting union representation during the organizing drive, which began last November. Abramson, fellow committee co-chair Robert Barnwell, Local 13 representative Matt Rice and an organizer from the international union attempted to track down every stagehand who had worked in the Varsity over the previous year.

“It took a couple months,” Abramson said. “We were finding people on Facebook, guessing at the spelling of their names, whatever we could do.”

By the time they were finished, the union had a more comprehensive roster of people who had worked at the Varsity than the theater did.

Although the unit was restricted to employees who had averaged four hours of work per week over the last three months, the outreach effort raised awareness of the union among stagehands – and could set the stage for organizing drives at other small venues across the metro.

“One guy who did (independent contractor) work at the Varsity but works predominantly at another venue, he signed the card,” Abramson remembered, “then he said, ‘So when are you guys coming over here?’”

The organizing drive is just one way Local 13’s Young Worker Committee is attempting to rebrand the union and enhance its image in the Twin Cities events and entertainment scene. The committee just wrapped up a t-shirt drive, collecting the free shirts given to stagehands by touring acts – “Fleetwood Mac Local Crew,” for example – and donating them to charity.

“We all have closets full of t-shirts we never wear,” Abramson. “So we set up collection sites around town and worked with the AFL-CIO Community Services program to make sure the shirts go to good use.

“Hopefully we’re shedding some of the images of what the union is – the crusty old guy, or the old man’s club. We’re trying to make a younger presence known.”

Abramson welcomes inquiries from workers in the industry looking to improve safety, wages, benefits and working conditions at their shops. Email him at michael_abramson@iatse13.org.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,