Learning to lead: ILR institute trains the next generation of union organizers

Participants come from public and private sector unions that represent teachers, civil servants, doctors, security officers and building trades. The variety of perspectives is essential, Mulligan said, to "build deep relationships, across groups of people who wouldn't normally necessarily relate to each other."

In one, participants were asked to describe a transformative moment that led them to ULI.

Hill talked about getting kicked out of his family's house at age 14. He sold drugs to survive, and by age 17 had been in and out of jail. He began to reevaluate his decisions. "I lost a lot of good friends to the streets and in jail."

Homeless and unable to sleep in a cold staircase one night, he thought about a Japanese anime character who set aside his pride to help others. That prompted Hill to reach out to a friend, who helped him get the job with Sanitation Salvage. "That moment changed me," he said, "because I asked for help when I never do."

After working for Sanitation Salvage, he joined the union. "The union saved my life, because I was going to go back to hustling and they offered me a job," he said. "They saw something in me that I didn't see in myself."

ULI's judgment-free approach made him feel he could tell his story. "In ULI, they tell you, 'Please, we'd rather see the authentic you,'" Hill said. "It's helping me come out of my shell and show what I have to give."

'We work together'

At around 10 p.m., Hill drove from Brooklyn into Manhattan to talk with a sanitation worker who wanted to join Local 108 because of its medical and retirement benefits. Then he headed to back to Brooklyn to check on a worker there.

"Normally union reps don't do that," Hill said. "I try to work two nights a week to see if the workers are working safely, so we don't have to worry about a suspension or termination. I coach them, so we work together."

By then he and his ULI classmates had attended retreats in New York City and Albany, where they had explored organizational development. They learned to assess their organizations, understand precarity in areas like the gig economy and globalization, and advance diversity, equity and inclusion. They studied how to build agreements with stakeholders, organize union members and run campaigns.

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