Labor studies brings two notables to online professoriate

Lee is currently an Internet and technology consultant and counts as clients the largest private sector union in the United Kingdom, the International Labour Organzation’s International Training Centre in Turin, Italy, and the Geneva-based International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations, which unites 336 trade unions in 120 countries with a combined membership of more than 12 million workers. He’s also responsible for the LabourStart Web project ( http://www.labourstart.org ) and founding editor of the quarterly magazine of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations, which is published in three languages and read by labor educators around the world.

Yates is a labor educator, editor and writer. He taught economics and labor relations at the University of Pittsburgh from 1969 until he retired in 2001. Among his books are Why Unions Matter and Longer Hours, Fewer Jobs. His Naming the System: Inequality and Work in the Global Economy will be the text used for his class. He has taught union members through Penn State’s Union Leadership program, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Labor Center, and Cornell University’s Labor Centers in Manhattan and Albany, N.Y.

Next fall, the division will offer ten courses online. Students are able to fulfill all course requirements for majoring in labor studies entirely through online classes.