September 24, 2010
“Organizing from the ground up, with the voices of workers
driving the process, is key to the success and future of labor
unions.” This was one of many resonant points renowned labor
scholar Julius G. (“Jack”) Getman made to over 175 St. John’s Law
School students, faculty, alumni and friends who came together on
September 16, 2010 to celebrate his new book,
Restoring the Power of Unions: It Takes a Movement (Yale
University Press). “It’s an honor to welcome Jack Getman, the Earl
E. Sheffield Regents Chair at the University of Texas School of
Law,” Dean
Michael A. Simons said. “This evening of discourse on his
powerful book is a wonderful way to mark our
Center for Labor and Employment Law’s inaugural year.”
Photo Gallery
David L. Gregory, the Center’s Executive Director and the Law
School’s Dorothy Day Professor of Law, then introduced Professor
Getman, who was his teacher and doctoral dissertation advisor at
Yale Law School. “To spend any time with Jack Getman is to learn
about life,” Professor Gregory reflected. “More than any other
scholar I know, Jack’s great gift is that he thoroughly enjoys
talking with, and listening carefully to, workers. He then
translates compelling stories into correlative legal principles
with a keen analytical and critical scholar’s touch, tempered by
great humanity and fundamental decency.”
Addressing the audience, Professor Getman offered
optimistic strategies for reviving the labor movement, advocating
that unions return to their historical roots as a social movement.
Chronicling a continuum of unionizing successes, from the Yale
University clerical and custodial workers 30 years ago to today’s
Las Vegas casino workers, Professor Getman observed that “the
spirit of solidarity is really amazing” in worker-led unions.
Panelists Frederick D. Braid ’71, a partner at Holland &
Knight, and Cynthia L. Estlund, the Catherine A. Rein Professor of
Law at New York University Law School, continued the engaging
dialogue. Offering the employers’ perspective, Braid suggested that
unions already have significant bargaining power. Professor Estlund
discussed recent strikes in China and suggested that American
workers could achieve the same bargaining power by organizing and
mobilizing. In his inspiring closing remarks, UNITE!HERE’s
President, John W. Wilhelm, observed: “Jack Getman has been a great
friend of labor all his life. It is wonderful to see his living
legacy and important message carried on through protégé David
Gregory’s work at St. John’s Center for Labor and Employment
Law.”
Another highlight of the evening was a student roundtable with
Professor Getman, who discussed the challenges unions face and the
contributions students can make as future labor movement leaders.
“Professor Getman’s hour-long conversation was an extraordinary
experience for me and my fellow students,” said Jack Newhouse ’12.
“This is exactly the kind of hands-on learning opportunity the Law
School and the Center for Labor and Employment Law continually
provide. With this foundation of support and encouragement, I have
secured a summer associate position with a leading labor and
employment law firm.”