By Savannah Priestap
I had the privilege of attending this year’s Pegging Browning Fund’s National Law Students Workers’ Rights Conference in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. The Pegging Browning Fund is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “educate and inspire the next generation of law students to become advocates for workplace justice.” Each year it provides a two-day national conference open to all law students across the country who share an interest in practicing public interest labor law.
The program began on Friday, October 12th with a networking dinner and presentation by labor law professor Ruben Garcia. I had the chance to meet my roommate for the weekend, a 3L at Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon. We socialized with the other law students and later had the opportunity to learn about timely workers’ rights topics from a distinguished professor.
Saturday began bright and early with breakfast and a keynote address from Kenneth Rigmaiden, General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Mr. Rigmaiden highlighted the challenges workers currently face, especially in light of the recent Janus decision, and how we, as future lawyers, can help solve some of these issues through our work and dedication to labor law.
After the keynote address, I attended two workshops: Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers, and The Rewards of Labor Law Practice. The first session gave an overview of the difficulties that immigrant workers encounter when they attempt to form a union or enforce other workplace rights. We also discussed legal, policy, and legislative strategies for overcoming those challenges and enabling immigrant workers to exercise or enforce their workplace rights. Top labor lawyers presented the second session, which offered perspectives on working and practicing law in and for the labor movement. I found this workshop to be the most useful as it gave insight into the positives and negatives of the practice and the lifestyle that goes with it.
After lunch, I attended the final breakout session: Sports and Labor Law. St. John’s alumnus, Jeff Fannell, presented alongside the Associate General Counsel at the NFLPA and former General Counsel of the MLBPA. The panel shared their own experiences and backgrounds, and offered their perspectives on many visible and controversial issues in their field, such as drug testing and domestic violence.
The program concluded with a plenary session on the #MeToo Movement and union efforts to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace. In particular, the speakers discussed a movement led by a hotel workers’ union in Chicago to successfully enact a city ordinance requiring panic buttons in hotel rooms for a predominantly female hotel workforce who has been historically vulnerable to harassment and assault. We had a chance to view a video put together by the union, calling for Chicago government officials to take more affirmative steps toward combatting sexual harassment in the workplace.
Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity St. John’s provided me to attend the Workers’ Rights Conference. The professionals in the field introduced me to a side of labor and employment law that I had not yet really engaged with as a 2L, and it was a great experience to hear and learn about the real issues unions are up against in the workplace and the ways lawyers can help. I recommend any student with a true interest in joining or learning more about the labor movement apply to the conference next year, and even consider becoming a Peggy Browning Fund Fellow!
