University of Central Florida SDS brings students from the classroom to the shop floor
Tampa, FL – UCF’s Students for a Democratic Society is taking steps to deepen its ties to organized labor and the working class by holding an event they dubbed “From The Classroom to The Shop Floor,” February 5, inviting representatives from local labor unions to explain their experiences organizing and labor solidarity to the students.
Representatives from Seminole Education Association, the union representing public school teachers in the Orlando area, and UNITE HERE Local 632, representing workers at Disney parks, were invited alongside members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
A member of SDS emphasized the importance of students joining the working class out of college to use their SDS experience to employ militant, progressive mass organizing to the labor movement, what FRSO organizer Conor Munro dubbed “fusion” in his discussion on FRSO’s strategy of returning socialism to the working class through “class struggle unionism.”
SDS Vice President Vanessa Christaldi discussed the imperative for students to take their experience organizing on campus to their communities and unions if they want to effectively organize for social change.
SEA member Edmund Anglero spoke on his history as a student organizer at FSU and his transition into union organizing after he became a teacher. UNITE HERE member Victoria Burns discussed what unions do for workers, how they grow and organize, and the challenges they face in states such as Florida with notorious “right to work” laws and legislators working tirelessly for years to sabotage unions, especially public sector unions such as SEA.
An engaged audience was happy to ask the speakers what made them wish to join a union, their hopes for future activism, and how to get involved locally.