Public Employee Press

Congratulations to Harvard grads

Two union staffers, Principal Program Coordinator Guille Mejia of the Safety and Health Dept. and Dan Persons, Special Assistant to the President of Local 1549, graduated recently from the Harvard Trade Union Program. The intensive six-week program focuses on the challenges of leadership and key issues facing the labor movement. Participants study collective bargaining, economics and history with faculty of the famed university and outside guests.

The class included unionists from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.

Persons enjoyed the readings and discussions on strategic issues facing public-sector unions. "We studied turning points, and we are definitely in one of those periods now," he said.

Mejia said she benefited from learning techniques used by unions in other countries. "It was a very good learning experience. We joined a picket line at the Tufts University Medical Center to support the Massachusetts Nurses' Association."

She noted that the director of the program, Elaine Bernard, used a number of case studies involving AFSCME, DC 37's national union.