Northwest labor press., January 17, 2014, Page 5, Image 5

LERC’s Marcus Widenor retires;
Raahi Reddy hired as instructor
University of Oregon’s Labor Edu- the Los Angeles chapter.
In 2012, Reddy moved to Oregon
cation and Research Center (LERC) has
a new instructor — Raahi Reddy — with her husband Hays Witt and their
infant daughter. Witt went to
who has a 20-year record as a
work for the Partnership for
labor educator and union or-
Working Families, and
ganizer. LERC hired Reddy in
Reddy went to work as or-
September 2013 to fill a va-
ganizing director for Basic
cancy created when associate
Rights Oregon, working on
professor Marcus Widenor re-
the same-sex marriage initia-
tired Oct. 1, 2012.
tive aimed at the November
LERC is a kind of univer-
2014 ballot. Now, at LERC,
sity extension service, offer-
MARCUS
she’s back to educating union
ing training to workers and
WIDENOR
leaders.
unions, and applied research
Widenor, 61, will continue
on work, employment, and la-
to teach one class a year at
bor relations.
UO, most recently an under-
Reddy, 41, was born in In-
graduate sociology class
dia and grew up in Jersey City,
called American Unions and
New Jersey, the daughter of a
Workers Movements. He
single mom and hospital
joined LERC in 1984 after
nurse. She was an activist
working as a labor educator at
from an early age, volunteer-
ing at 16 for Jesse Jackson’s RAAHI REDDY the University of Minnesota
and as an organizer in South-
1988 presidential campaign.
She joined a student labor action group ern textile mills for the International
at Rutgers University, and after earning Ladies Garment Workers Union. At
a political science degree, went to work LERC, he became an expert on the
for Service Employees International wood products industry, Oregon’s labor
Union (SEIU). She then spent five years and working-class history, and public
as an SEIU organizer in New York and sector labor law. Looking back, Wide-
New Jersey, seven years as lead organ- nor says his 28 years at LERC coin-
izer and organizing director at 20,000- cided with the collapse of private sector
member SEIU Local 715 in San Jose, unions in Oregon — and the ascen-
and three years as deputy director and dancy of very sophisticated unions in
chief of staff at 85,000-member Local the public sector. But the labor move-
721 in Los Angeles. She also earned a ment can’t continue without a strong
master’s degree in urban planning from private-sector component, Widenor
UCLA, spent several years as a labor said. On the other hand, Widenor said,
educator, and in 2005 helped found an Oregon’s labor movement has more
annual training for union organizers at women in leadership now than it did in
the UC Berkeley Labor Center. While the 1980s, and more young and com-
at UCLA, she authored a report that mitted union organizers.
For the future, Widenor said he’s
helped win passage of a project labor
agreement in which local development most excited about the development of
agency committed to employ union la- alternative worker movements — “ex-
bor — and open up high-paying union periments in the cracks at the edges of
jobs in construction to low-income peo- collective bargaining,” like recent strikes
ple and minorities. She’s been active in by fast food workers in a number of
the Asian Pacific American Labor Al- cities. “The collective bargaining sys-
liance since 1992, and was president of tem, as we know it, is broken,” he said.
JANUARY 17, 2014
If you are hurt on the
job, you have the right
to choose your doctor.
Your employer is not
allowed to direct your
medical care.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 5