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Book Lecture: Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers' Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage
WHEN: Wednesday, September 6th, 5:30-6:30pm
WHERE: CAP ArtSpace in the Tompkins Center for History & Culture on the Ithaca Commons - 110 North Tioga St. Ithaca NY 14850.
This event is FREE, the room can accommodate up to 45 attendants. If we reach capacity, doors will close 5 minutes before the program is set to begin.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us for a BOOK TALK the week of Labor Day with author Al Davidoff, the Cornell student leader who became a custodian and the union's first president, for a panel discussion on his newest work 'Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers' Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage'.
Unionizing the Ivory Tower chronicles how a thousand low-paid custodians, cooks, and gardeners succeeded in organizing a union at Cornell University. Al Davidoff, the Cornell student leader who became a custodian and the union's first president, tells the extraordinary story of these ordinary workers with passion, sensitivity, and wit.
His memoir reveals how they took on the dominant power in the community, built a strong organization, and waged multiple strikes and campaigns for livable wages and their dignity. Their strategies and tactics were creative and feisty, founded on worker participation and ownership.
The union's commitment to fairness, equity, and economic justice also engaged these workers—mostly rural, white, and conservative—at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Davidoff's story demonstrates how a fighting union can activate today's working class to oppose antidemocratic and white supremacist forces.
Event Collaborators:
Our thanks to Cornell Press for publishing this important work chronicling local union history, Odyssey Bookstore for coordinating sales of the book following the panel, and The History Center in Tompkins County for hosting.
PURCHASE THE BOOK
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Land Acknowledgement
This event will take place in the traditional and contemporary lands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Nation (Cayuga), one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Learn more at thehistorycenter.net/land-acknowledgement.
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