NLG Hosts Second Annual Northeast Ohio State of Labor Conference at CSU|Law

On Friday, March 28th, CSU|Law hosted the second annual Northeast Ohio State of Labor Conference.  The conference brought together union-side labor lawyers, organizers, and activists for a day of networking, education, and strategizing for how to respond to a historic crisis for the labor movement. 

The conference was hosted by CSU|Law’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), in collaboration with the Northeast Ohio Worker Center and other allied groups.  This was only natural for the NLG, which was founded in 1937 in response to the American Bar Association’s hostility to the industrial union movement.  Following in this proud tradition, our NLG chapter has worked to improve opportunities for students interested in union-side labor law, including sending a large contingent of students to the National Law Student Workers Rights Conference in 2023 and 2024 as well as hosting our own labor conference.  The law school has also begun to recognize students’ growing interest in labor and employment law—when I enrolled in 2022, the school had not even taught labor law in years; now, this semester alone, students could choose from four different labor and employment law classes. 

This year’s labor conference had a unique sense of urgency.  The labor movement is under attack, from a wholesale assault on public sector workers to the likelihood of a Trump-appointed NLRB making it extremely difficult to assert workers’ rights.  And this is only part of a broader authoritarian crackdown during the second Trump administration, including rounding up dissidents and immigrants and targeting lawyers with whom the government disagrees.  As Northeast Ohio labor lawyers and activists gathered in the Moot Court Room, this crisis was at the top of everyone’s mind—how can the labor movement effectively fight back, without falling victim to the government onslaught? 

The conference began with keynote addresses by State Representative Tristan Rader, who spoke about the attacks on working people across the country, and Tanmay Shah, a lawyer, organizer, truck driver, and city council candidate in Cleveland’s Ward 12, who urged attendees of the conference to organize in their communities rather than wallowing in despair. 

The first of three panels focused on Union Law 101, a discussion of how US labor law functions in practice.  The panel was moderated by CSU|Law Labor Law and Legal Writing Professor Brandon Stump, and included Tim Gallagher, union-side labor lawyer at Fusco Gallagher & Porcaro LLP and general counsel of the Ohio AFL-CIO; Anna Powaski, Labor Chair of the Cleveland Democratic Socialists of America and longtime union organizer; and Ken Walker, Jr., a Starbucks Workers United organizer who was illegally fired for his union activities.  Panelists discussed many of the challenges of working in the contemporary labor movement, including whiplash policy oscillation (as many labor law rules change between presidential administrations), legal impediments to reaching workers, and low union density making it difficult for people to understand what unions can do for them, while offering both caution of the risk of working under a hostile government and ideas for how the labor movement can strengthen itself through the power of solidarity. 

The next panel focused on immigration law.  It included immigration attorneys Stacy Cozart Martin and Brian Hoffman and was moderated by community organizer C. Stonebraker-Martínez.  The panelists opened by dispensing with many of the myths of the immigration debate, including the myth that undocumented immigrants can easily come in the “right way” (it is extremely difficult to do so) and that undocumented immigrants leech off of government benefits (it is the opposite—they pay taxes, but receive no benefits).  They then turned to the immense threat posed by the recent executive order promising to bring government action against immigration lawyers, warning attendees that it sets the stage for a broader crackdown on the legal field and anyone else who falls out of favor of the government.  Finally, they gave attendees a number of practical steps they could take to support the immigrant community. 

The final panel was focused on the public sector labor movement.  It was moderated by Starbucks Workers United organizer Akshai Singh, and included Skylar Urban, math teacher and Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) member; Alexis Mangan, Preterm Cleveland administrator and SEIU 1199 member; Dr. Shereen Naser, CSU professor and American Association of University Professors (AAUP) member; and Steve Campisi, Legislative Political Organizer for American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) District 6.   

These panelists discussed the myriad attacks on public sector workers, from the national level, including mass purges and the elimination of hundreds of thousands of federal employees’ collective bargaining rights; to the state level, including the Orwellian union-busting bill SB1 (which was signed by Governor DeWine that day); to the local level, including significant setbacks for teachers at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.  They gave harrowing stories of the immediate impacts that these attacks on public employees have—not only the trauma, hardship, and uncertainty inflicted on the employees themselves, but the loss of essential services for the general public.  They described veterans who lost health and transportation services, LGBTQ high school students who feared being outed by teachers whose hands were forced by the state government, college students who spoke out against the gutting of their higher education.  But they closed by reminding attendees of ways to fight back—attending protests, calling representatives, and showing solidarity with public sector unions. 

Attendees were left with many important overarching conclusions.  Panelists spoke about how important and fulfilling the practice of union-side labor law can be.  Rank-and-file unionism was repeatedly emphasized—unions can only effectively fight for their members’ rights if members are part of the fight, not just passively receiving protection and benefits from union leadership.  Solidarity was also, naturally, a recurring theme, especially solidarity with the most vulnerable among us.  If immigrants, public employees, attorneys, and Palestinians are on the chopping block today, there is no limit to who will be next. 

Akshai Singh closed the conference with the following words by labor journalist Hamilton Nolan, writing about the recent executive order stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of their collective bargaining rights: 

  There is a surreal nature to living through drastic things—watching things unfold that we have only imagined as abstract possibilities. That surreality can be paralyzing. It can turn us into spectators of our own demise. Let’s not do that. I don’t want to write new “the worst thing that has happened in my lifetime” pieces every few weeks. The labor movement is supposed to have the power to shut things down. Time to act like it. Or, to prepare to die. Only two things are left on the menu. No substitutions allowed.