IPS21 Plenary Panel - As We Move Forward: Major Recent Events and Their Impact on Public Sector Labor
Total Credits: 1.25
- Categories:
- Labor Law | Labor Relations
- Speakers:
- Mr. Alex Breland | Beverly Bunch | Joel M Weisblatt | Stacy Davis Gates
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 14 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Original Program Date:
- Dec 02, 2021
- Product Type:
- On Demand
- License:
- Access for 365 day(s) after purchase.
Description
The panelists in this session will discuss:
• The impact of the pandemic and related federal legislation on state and local governments budgets.
• The impact of the pandemic on employers and unions in the context of collective bargaining. The focus will be on both pre and post vaccine issues and will note the involvement of certain judicial actions with respect to collective negotiations disputes.
• How negotiating for workers who are common good practitioners requires a labor union that leads and represents from an equity and inclusion lens.
• Notable developments and challenges in the workplace in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as informed from the perspective of an in-house attorney working in the private sector, for some period, in an industry adjacent to the public sector.
Speaker
Mr. Alex Breland Related Seminars and Products
Counsel, Litigation & Employment
CDK Global
Alex Breland is an attorney who represents management in a variety of matters related to the employer-employee relationship in union and non-union workplaces. His varied experience allows him to provide sound advice and representation to clients at all points of the employment relationship from the hiring process through employee separation.
Beverly Bunch Related Seminars and Products
Professor, Department of Public Administration
University of Illinois-Springfield
Beverly S. Bunch is a Professor in the Public Administration Department at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) with a joint appointment in the Center for State Policy and Leadership. She conducts research on state and local government budgeting and financial management. She is a co-associate editor of the Illinois Municipal Policy Journal and is leading a team of UIS researchers who are working with the Volcker Alliance on its Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting project. She has co-authored a book with Dalitso S. Sulamoyo titled Community Action Leaders: Rooting out Poverty at the Local Level (Routlege 2017).
Joel M Weisblatt Related Seminars and Products
Chair
New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission
Joel Weisblatt serves as full-time Chair of the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission (NJ PERC) with jurisdiction over all public sector collective negotiations relationships in New Jersey. The Agency has divisions of Conciliation and Arbitration, Unfair Practices and Representation and of a General Counsel. Prior to joining NJ PERC, Mr. Weisblatt engaged in practice as an arbitrator, mediator and fact finder in labor relations disputes. He served as an impartial third party in over 5,000 matters involving employers and unions in both the public and private sectors and in various other employment disputes including individual employment contracts and employment issues involving statutory claims (e.g. FLSA, EEO and FMLA). From 1977 – 1982 he served as a staff mediator with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission and assisted the parties in several hundred disputes including numerous crisis bargaining situations. Mr. Weisblatt received a B.S. from Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Stacy Davis Gates Related Seminars and Products
Vice President/Executive Vice President
Chicago Teachers Union/Illinois Federation of Teachers
Stacy Davis Gates is the Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Prior to her current role at the CTU, she served as the union’s Political and Legislative Director. In the fall of 2019, she helped to lead a 15-day strike and to negotiate an historic contract that provides for smaller class sizes, ensures a nurse and social worker in every Chicago public school, secures sanctuary protections for immigrant families, and supports students and families experiencing homelessness. While at the CTU, Ms. Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. She has raised millions of dollars to elect classroom teachers to all levels of local government and to challenge school privatizers and union-busters. Ms. Davis Gates has also spearheaded statewide legislative campaigns to pass the strongest charter school accountability measures in the country, push for the restoration of the bargaining rights of Chicago Public Schools employees, and fully fund public education by ending tax loopholes for the 1%. In 2017, Ms. Davis Gates was elected Chair of United Working Families, an independent political organization by and for working-class people and our movements. She also serves as a board member for the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE), a nexus for organizations working at the intersection of the struggle for racial justice and Wall Street accountability. Ms. Davis Gates is currently on leave from the classroom, where she taught high school social studies for over a decade at Englewood, Clemente, and Mason Community Links High Schools. She attended Saint Mary’s College, the University of Notre Dame, and Concordia University. Ms. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children.