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| News
and Events Selected for Interest to the IRLE Community |
September
2005 (No. 8) |
Editor: Terence
K. Huwe
Contributors: Elizabeth del Rocío Camacho, Janice Kimball
IIR News & Events
New Format for IIR eNews
New Policy Brief on Minimum Wage and the California
Economy
First IIR Faculty Seminar: Dan Mitchell, UCLA
Visiting Scholars and Post Doctoral Fellows
Recent IIR Working Papers
Robert Reich Joins the Goldman School
Karen Chapple Recognized for Research on
IT Jobs
Irene Bloemraad Announces Fall 2005 Immigration
Workshop
Sponsored Research: 2004-2005 Labor &
Education Fund Grant Recipients
Sponsored Research: Other Grants
New Employees at IIR—and Fond Farewells
IIR Unit News
Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
News
Center for Work, Technology and Society News
CPER News
IIR Library: Library Acquires Oakland Art
Museum Strike Exhibit
Labor Center News
Labor Project for Working Families: First
Five Funds Major Collaborative Project
Campus Events
Center for Latin American Studies Events
Coming Soon: Marc Blitzstein’s
Play “The Cradle Will Rock”
New Format for IIR eNews
eNews has a new format this fall. The email version will be much
briefer, and will link to the Web editions. The email edition will give you links and headlines, and the Web edition with provide greater detail for those who are interested in various topics. We're going continue to focus on shortening the email, but providing full information on the Web throughout fall 2005.
New Policy Brief on Minimum Wages and the California
Economy
Michael Reich, Arindrajit Dube and Gina Vickery have published
the following paper:
“Minimum
Wage and the California Economy: The Economic Impact of AB 48"
The policy brief is online, together with updated resources
on minimum wages.
IIR Faculty Seminar: Daniel J. B. Mitchell
Title: "Implications of the 'New' Model of Employer Ascendancy"
Mark your calendars: the first Faculty Seminar of the fall will
be held on September 26. Details will follow.
IIR Welcomes Fall 2005 Visiting Scholars and International
Post Doctoral Fellows
Dion Aroner – United States
Dion Aroner, former Assembly member 14th District California, is a Visiting Scholar/Legislator-in-Residence with the Center for Labor Research & Education from January, 2005 through December, 2005. Ms. Aroner is continuing her work on various human services and childcare workforce policy projects. She is sponsored by Carol Zabin from January, 2005 through December, 2005.
Fahad Awaleh – Norwegian School of Management,
Oslo, Norway
Professor Fahad Awaleh is a full-time research professor in
the Department of Strategy at Norwegian School of Management.
Fahad works on the developments in the American electronics
industry and the Norwegian electronics industry. Alaweh will
be visiting for the period May 1, 2005 through October 31, 2005
and is sponsored by Professor Trond Petersen.
Elizabeth Greenwood – United States
Ms. Greenwood is a visiting scholar from MIT and will conduct
environmental economics research with Professor Michael Greenstone,
MIT. Some current projects include exploring the possible economic
effects of climate change over the next 100 years and how nuclear
testing in Nevada has affected mortality rates and property
values. Ms. Greenwood is sponsored by Michael Reich and will
here from August, 2005 through August, 2006.
Oscar Gonzalez-Peral – Università
della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland
Oscar Gonzalez-Peral’s research focus is labor economics
and the possible impact of the liberalization of migration rules
in Europe (free mobility). He will be at the Institute of Industrial
Relations for one year beginning in August 2005 on a scholarship
from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Gonzalez-Peral is
sponsored by Professor Michael Reich.
Brian McCall – University of Minnesota
Brian Mc Call is a visiting Professor from the Industrial Relations Center, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He is sponsored by David Card, Professor of Economics, UCB. His current research interests: The Impact of Shift Work on Worker Injuries; Job Mobility and Wage Inequality and Dispute Resolution in Workers' Compensation. Professor McCall will be here through December, 2005.
Bjorn E. Mork – University of Oslo,
Norway
Professor Bjorn Mork is a Sociologist from the University of
Oslo, Norway. He has since 2000 worked at the Interventional
Centre, Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet HF, Oslo, Norway. In
2005, he will continue his work on a project there that is called
“Changing Medical Practices – A study of crosss-disciplinary
collaboration, learning and innovation in a Norwegian University
Hospital”. Bjorn Mork will be visiting from April, 2005
through October 31, 2005 and is under the sponsorship of Professor
Trond Petersen.
Susan Helper – Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio
Susan Helper is a Professor of Economics from Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio. Ms. Helper’s research is
a joint project with Professor David Levine of the Haas School
of Business which examines the impact of employment in Mexican
maquilas (export-oriented factories) on health outcomes. This
project will shed light on the effect of export-led policies
(and of employment relations within firms) on a key measure
of development -- health outcomes. Susan Helper will be here
from July, 2005 through March, 2006.
Marco
Leonardi – University of Milan, Milano, Italy
Marco Leonardi is a Professor of Economics at Dipartimento di
Studi del Lavoro, Unversita Statale di Milano, Milano, Italy.
Mr. Leonardi’s research focuses on wage inequality, labour
market institutions and wage inequality and product demand shifts
and wage inequality. Marco is sponsored by Michael Reich and
Enrico Moretti, Economics Department, UCB.
Thomas
Rankin – United States
Tom Rankin, former President, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO,
is a Visiting Scholar/Labor-Leader-in-Residence with the Center
for Labor Research & Education at IIR from June, 2005 through
June, 2006. He is sponsored by Katie Quan, Chair, Center for
Labor Research & Education.
Tsuyoshi Tsuru-Hitosubashi – University,
Tokyo, Japan
Tsuyoshi Tsuru is a Professor of Economics at Hitotsubashi University,
Tokyo, Japan and will be at UC Berkeley as a Freeman Fellow.
He is sponsored by Professor Clair Brown, Center for Work Technology
at IIR. Tsuru’s current research areas include: “institutional
and quantitative analysis of industrial relations in Japan;
analysis of the structure and transformation of the Japanese
personnel system and analysis of innovation and evolution in
productions systems”. Professor Tsuru will teach an economics
class at IIR in fall, 2005 and will be here through February,
2006.
Pietro Vertova – Italy University of
Siena
Pietro Vertova is an economic researcher at Italy University
of Siena and is sponsored by Professor Michael Reich. He is
visiting the winter and spring semesters of 2005. His work is
in welfare economics. His research involves studying the impact
of employment protection legislation on wages and productivity
among workers with various skill levels.
International Post-Doctoral Fellows at the Institute
of Industrial Relations
Paolo Buonanno – University of Milan
- Bicocca, Italy
Mr. Paolo Buonanno is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under
the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Mr. Buonanno
will be here from August 26, 2005 through March 31, 2006.
Federico Cingano – Univ. Pompeu Fabreu
- Barcelona, Spain
Mr. Federico Cingano is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under
the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Mr. Cingano
will be here from September 1, 2005 through May 31, 2006.
Emilia Del Bono – University of Oxford,
England
Ms. Emilia Del Bono is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Ms. Del Bono will be here from July 1, 2005 through October 30, 2005.
Carlo Devillanova – Univ. Pumpeu Fabra-Barcelona, Spain
Mr. Carlo Devillanova is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Mr. Devillanova will be here from October 1, 2005 through December 20, 2005.
Alfonso Rosolia – Univ. Pumpeu Fabra-Barcelona,
Spain
Mr. Alfonso Rosolia is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under
the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Mr. Rosolia
will be here from September 1, 2005 through May 31, 2006.
Andrea Weber – Vienna University of Technology,
Austria
Ms. Andrea Weber is a post-doc student at UC Berkeley under
the mentorship of Professor David Card, Economics. Ms. Weber
will be here from August 1, 2005 through July 31, 2006.
Recent IIR
Working Papers
Clair Brown and Greg Linden (May 1, 2005):
Offshoring
in the Semiconductor Industry: Historical Perspectives
Ruth Berins Collier and Samuel P. Handlin (August 10,
2005):
Shifting
Interest Regimes of the Working Classes in Latin America
Karen Chapple (May 1, 2005):
Promising
Futures: Workforce Development and Upward Mobility in Information
Technology
Arindrajit Dube, Suresh Naidu, and Michael Reich
(August 22, 2005).
Can
a Citywide Minimum Wage Be An Effective Policy Tool? Evidence
From San Francisco
Mary C. Noonan, Sandra S. Smith, and Mary E. Corcoran
(August 1, 2005):
Examining
the Impact of Welfare Reform, Labor Market Conditions, and
the Earned Income Tax Credit on the Employment of Black and
White Single Mothers
Amy Vassalotti
How
will an increase from $6.75 to $7.75 in the California minimum wage impact the California economy?
Robert Reich Appointed Joins the Goldman School
Professor Reich is a familiar face, having a been a visiting scholar at the Goldman School in 2004-2005. Over the summer he joined the faculty at Goldman. Professor Reich was Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration. IIR is pleased to welcome Professor Reich, who is affiliated with the Institute.
Full story: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/07/22_reichatcal.shtml
Karen Chapple Recognized for New Research
Study shows promise of entry-level IT jobs for low-wage workers
REPRINTED FROM UCB MEDIA RELATIONS
By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 14 July 2005
BERKELEY – Never mind the headlines about offshore outsourcing.
A University of California, Berkeley, professor says some
regions in the United States offer a solid future for information
technology jobs, particularly for low-wage workers entering
the field.
Karen Chapple, an assistant professor of city and regional
planning who teaches courses on economic development, poverty
and metropolitan planning, says her research shows that an
increasing simplification of information technology skills,
transformation of the IT workplace from a concentrated high-tech
industry to virtually every business in America, and an increase
in training services, are vastly increasing opportunities
and rewards for jobseekers with minimal education.
"The major finding," said Chapple in an interview,
"is that if you can get in the IT door, you're going
to have incredible wage gains - up to a 56 percent increase
in wages over just three years. I think it's the key to upward
mobility."
Training program graduates Chapple talked to found their wages
increase from about $13 an hour in retail, service and construction
jobs to $20 an hour in IT. Those who moved into IT with only
a high school diploma or general equivalency degree (GED)
saw wages increase by 74 percent, Chapple said, while those
with a college degree reported salary boosts averaging 60
percent, and those with an associate's degree experienced
wage gains of 36 percent. This suggests, she said, that if
someone can't earn a four-year college degree, they would
be better off attending a short training program than going
to community college.
AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of UC Berkeley's School of Information
Management & Systems, has studied information technology
and regional economic development from Silicon Valley to India.
She said American IT workers have been affected by waves of
outsourcing of their jobs in recent years while simultaneously
being hurt by the recession.
Today, said Saxenian, the country is emerging from the recession
and witnessing a steady growth of IT jobs in previously atypical
fields, such as health care, agriculture and biotechnology.
She predicted that the spread of IT to non-traditional areas
will be the source of increased job opportunities.
Chapple spent four years assessing the IT scene with the use
of Web-based and personal interviews with city and suburban
IT employers, job hunters, workers, trainers and policymakers
in the field of workforce development. She asked questions
related to educational background, job placement, job duties,
length of employment, pay, career goals and more.
She also did a regression analysis to account for changes
in IT jobs in different regions, finding that the metropolitan
areas most vulnerable to substantial entry-level IT job losses
tend to be large cities with a disproportionate share of entry-level
occupations.
On another positive note, Chapple found that, generally, only
the large IT and IT services companies she interviewed were
interested in offshoring more of their information technology
jobs.
"Many companies fear that shifting jobs offshore will
interfere with how they do business," she wrote in an
appendix to the report. "Face-to-face contact is critical
not only in stimulating creativity but also in preserving
what companies call 'tribal' knowledge…of the business."
What becomes of these training program graduates when their
jobs are outsourced?
Chapple told the story of a Laotian immigrant she interviewed.
Armed with just his GED and a training program certificate,
he landed an entry-level IT job at a large banking operation.
Then he was laid off a year ago when the institution outsourced
its 800-employee IT division.
"His options?" Chapple asked. "He could go
to any number of small businesses that just need one (computer)
help desk person. He'll make less money and benefits, but
he'll survive. The manufacturing person who loses his or her
job will not. Those jobs are gone and aren't being replaced.
That's the nice thing about getting an IT skill set, the world
is open to you."
With more than 1 million entry-level IT jobs currently in
the U.S. and a predicted growth of over 5 percent per year
for the next eight years, employers cannot fill all the new
positions with workers from four-year colleges or from abroad,
she concluded. That is, in part, because the moderate-skill
jobs pay less than college-educated workers are willing to
accept, about $15 an hour for an entry-level position, Chapple
said.
The report, prepared for UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban
and Regional Development, explains how this has happened,
beginning with the evolution of IT jobs from the early days
of programming, which required computer science degrees or
close to it, to today's simpler, support jobs requiring skills
that can be learned in short-term training programs.
"Where yesterday's computer support specialist repaired
IBM 486s, today's installs home computer networks for the
cable company," writes Chapple in "Promising Futures:
Workforce Development and Upward Mobility in Information Technology."
In her report, funded by the National Science Foundation and
the UC Institute for Labor & Employment, she found that
just 30 percent of IT jobs are within specific information
technology companies, with the rest dispersed across hundreds
of other industries.
Training program graduates may initially be able to fix printers,
but on-the-job learning can teach them more and more about
software and networking, increasing their earning and advancement
abilities, Chapple says. Once they get their foot in the door
of the IT industry through a training program, they can also
return to school to advance further, she said.
As the labor market becomes increasingly "deinstitutionalized"
by moves to more part-time, contract and temporary jobs, as
well as by a declining minimum wage, shrinking unions, layoffs,
baby-boomer retirements and deregulation, Chapple said, training
programs play an ever larger role and should be examined closely.
Chapple noted that the federal government implemented the
Workforce Investment Act in 2000, with funding of $6 billion,
to develop a network of training providers. That's a far cry,
she said, from the $24 billion available in 1978 (in current
dollars).
The result is a trend toward privatization of job training
programs, with the nonprofit programs servicing the most disadvantaged
workers stuck in the inner city, even though people with training
needs are increasingly found throughout the metropolitan area.
Chapple said she found the nonprofit and public programs to
be better connected with employers and real job market demands,
more focused on a hands on, classroom approach demanding student
commitment, and determined to teach the "soft skills"
that many disadvantaged workers need to know to move successfully
from a low-paying job in a burger joint or janitorial service.
"This is a thoughtful analysis that employment and training
professionals will find useful as they grapple with addressing
issues of long-term employment sustainability and program
development," said Lorraine Giordano, executive director
of the San Francisco-based Information Technology Consortium.
The study relied on repeated interviews with 93 nonprofit
IT training program graduates from 2000 and 2001. Compared
to the overall U.S. IT workforce, Chapple said, they were
disproportionately minority, female and uneducated. But she
found that three to four years after finishing the training,
79 percent of the 63 graduates who could still be located
were still working in IT and reported significant wage gains.
"This is a field where there's tremendous opportunity
to move up," Chapple said.
The full report is online at:
http://www-iurd.ced.berkeley.edu/pub/abstract_mg200501.htm.
Irene Bloemraad Announces Immigration Workshop
Irene Bloemraad will once again be sponsoring the Berkeley interdisciplinary
immigration workshop.
WHAT: The immigration workshop is an informal group of faculty,
students, and visiting researchers interested in all aspects
of migration (including the 2nd generation), both in the United
States and around the world. The main goal is to help members
develop their migration-related research, and to build a community
of migration scholars at Berkeley. The group also has an email
list for migration-related information (fellowships, talks,
data sources, etc.).
WHO: Anyone at Berkeley (student, faculty, post-doc, visitor)
may participate. The group also has a few non-Berkeley affiliates.
The workshop is directed by Irene Bloemraad, Assistant Professor
in Sociology, and supported by the generous financial assistance
of the Institute of Industrial Relations.
The group normally meets every two weeks at noon on Friday to
read and comment on participants’ work. There will also
be two outside speakers this year, Jen'nan Ghazal Read in September
and Mary Waters in March. Professor Waters visit will coincide
with a one-day conference on immigration research, to be held
at the Institute of Industrial Relations.
If you are interested in attending, or even just being on our
email list, please email Professor Bloemraad or one of the workshop
coordinators: Shannon Gleeson (sgleeson@berkeley.edu)
or Els de Graauw (degraauw@berkeley.edu).
Sponsored Research: 2004-2005 Grant Recipients, Labor
and Education Fund
Arindrajit
Dube, Research Economist, UC Berkeley
Project/Data Generation Grant
The Dynamics of Job-Quality Transformation:
Health Benefits in the Unionized Grocery Sector in California
David
Levine, Professor, Business, UC Berkeley
Project/Data Generation Grant
What do Certifications of Process Quality tell us
about Job Quality?
Alexandre
Mas, Professor, Business, UC Berkeley
Project/Data Generation Grant
Nurse Unionization and the Quality of Care
Katie
Quan, Chair, The Labor Center, UC Berkeley
Project/Data Generation Grant
Documenting the Effects of the Phase-out of the
Multi-Fiber Agreement
Other Recent Sponsored Research Activity
Clair Brown and Greg Linden
“Positioning In the Value Chain To Capture Value: The
Semiconductor Industry”
Sloan Foundation
Clair
Brown, Benjamin Campbell, and Andrew Hildreth
“Competitive Semiconductors Manufacturing Program”
Urban Institute
Lauren
Edelman and Laura Krieger
“Judicial Deference to Institutionalized Employment
Practices”
National Science Foundation
Hillary
Anger Elfenbein
“Effective Behavior Through Understanding Emotion”
National Institutes of Health
Margaret
Weir, Steven Pitts
“Transportation Policy Development: Labor as a Missing
Stakeholder”
University of California Transportation Center
Dara
O’Rourke
“Community College for Migrant Workers”
U.S. Department of State
Trond
Petersen
“The Impact of Family Adaptation on Careers and Wages”
W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Marcy
Whitebook
“California's early care and education workforce”
David and Lucille Packard Foundation
Marcy
Whitebook
“The California Early Care and Education Statewide Workforce
Study”
First Five
New Employees at IIR
The IIR Community give a big welcome to Barbara Campbell,
our returning Grants Administrator. Many of us remember Barbara
and are delighted to see her again.
Hadidjah Rivera, our new MSO III, has spent
the summer getting to know us and working closely with director
Michael Reich. Welcome, Hadidjah!
The Labor Center recently appointed Katherine Yoo
as its Adminstrative Analyst. Katherine comes to IIR with a
great deal of UC experience. Also, Jenifer MacGillvary
has returned from maternity to rejoin the Labor Center team.
Welcome, Katherine and Jennifer!
…And Fond Farewells
We wish Tiehara Howell the very best in her
new position at the Haas School, which she is enjoying very
much. Also, the one and only Josephine Williamson
is thriving at Engineering. Maureen Kawaoka,
long-time friend of IIR, has retired but will always be part
of the IIR community. Lea Grundy was recruited
by SEIU and we’ll miss her, but with her tenure at the
Labor Project for Working Families and the Labor Center, she
too remains a member of our extended community. Best wishes,
all!
IIR Unit News
Center for the Study of Childcare Employment
State and local planning is well underway for a publicly funded
Preschool For All effort for California’s four-year-old
children, with the raising of preschool teacher standards
a likely outcome and this means building the capacity of California’s
higher education system to prepare a new generation of first-rate
early childhood teachers.
In the past year, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
has conducted a full inventory of this system, from community
colleges to PhD programs. The Center’s new report Time
to Revamp and Expand: Early Childhood Teacher Preparation
Programs in California’s Institutions of Higher Education
includes data on student and faculty characteristics, coursework
and practica, challenges faced by these programs, and student
supports.
CSCCE is the subject of an IIR Web “front page”
feature this month, which showcases the Center’s groundbreaking
research. CSCCE has received major new funding in recent times,
as is reported above.
Full Story: http://www.irle.berkeley.edu
Center for Work, Technology and Society News
Clair Brown and Greg Linden completed a paper on the history
of offshoring in the semiconductor industry that Clair presented
at the Brookings Institution Trade Forum in Washington DC
in May. They found that the initial offshoring of assembly
helped make the US companies cost-competitive with foreign
rivals. Then the offshoring of manufacturing with the rise
of "foundries" in Taiwan gave a boost to the dynamic
design-only chip model, where the U.S. (and Silicon Valley
in particular) remains the leader. The outcome of the current
stage of offshoring of chip design activities is not yet clear.
The design work being done overseas is mostly complementary
to what US engineers are doing, but a negative effect on the
market for US engineers may emerge as the work done offshore
increases in sophistication. Clair was a visiting scholar
at Doshisha University this summer, and she presented the
paper at a Doshisha research seminar and at JEITA, the Japanese
Electronics Association. Clair and Greg received a grant from
the Sloan Foundation to write a book on the evolution of the
semiconductor industry while Clair is on sabbatical this fall.
CPER News
CPER just received the manuscript for a new publications, Pocket
Guide to Due Process in Public Employment, written by Emi
Uyehara, a partner in the labor and employment law firm of Liebert
Cassidy Whitmore. We hope to have it ready for publication in
October. It will be the fourteenth title in CPER's Pocket Guide
Series.
The August issue of CPER (No. 173) features main articles
on pregnancy leave laws, a union-side rebuttal concerning bargaining
in L.A. County, and an interview with arbitrator Phil Tamoush.
Other articles cover how the BART strike was averted, police
officer personnel records, public school funding, the CUE and
UPTE strikes, and more.
CPER No. 174 is in progress for October. Also in October,
CPER will participate in the annual State Bar of California
Labor and Employment Law Section meeting in Anaheim.
IIR Library News
IIR Library Acquires Important Exhibit from Alameda Central
Labor Council
Sharon Cornu, new head of the Alameda Labor Council, has donated
the 1946 Oakland strike exhibition that was shown at the Oakland
museum several years ago. The exhibit consists of 6 file boxes
of background materials, plus museum-quality graphics. During
fall 2005, IIR Librarian Terry Huwe will consult with the
Labor Center and Michael Reich on various strategies to display
this well-curated historical exhibit.
“The Web at Risk” Project Underway
The Library is one of ten major partners in a multi-institution
project titled “The Web at Risk: A Distributed Approach
to Preserving Our Nation’s Political Cultural Heritage.
This project is led by the California Digital Library, and
includes UC San Diego, Stanford University, Sun Microsystems,
Inc., the Institute for Governmental Studies Library, the
University of Texas and New York University. The goal of the
research is to create a “toolkit” for archiving
and preserving public policy Web resources (such as election
Web sites, union Websites, policy group sites, ec). The IIR
Library is one of only two independent, Affiliated Libraries
to be included in this project.
Further Information: http://wiki.cdlib.org/WebAtRisk/tiki-index.php
Labor Center News
Collective Bargaining and Dispute Resolution in China
Today
The Labor Center presents Dr. Yanyuan Cheng,
Associate Professor in the School of Labor and Human Resources
at the People’s University, in the People’s Republic
of China, for a brown-bag lunch discussion:
Friday, September 2, 2005
Institute of Industrial Relations
2521 Channing Way
RSVP to Anahita Forati by email at aforati@berkeley.edu
or call (510) 643-4312
For a full update on Labor Center happenings, take a look at
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu
Labor Project for Working Families News
Labor Project for Working Families Receives Major Grant
During the summer, the First 5 Commission voted to give the
Paid Leave Collaborative, consisting of the Labor Project
for Working Families and 6 other organizations, $3 million
over 3 years. The funding will support outreach and education
on paid family leave.
LWPF will collaborate with EDD and others on this effort.
First 5 is focused on outreach to new parents and parents
of seriously ill children. The funder is interested in identifying
"evidence" that further research on paid family
leave will have impact. LWPF and its collaborators will report
back to First 5 in one year on whether there is an increase
in awareness and increase in paid leave claims.
This grant will support trainings, materials, a call center
in various languages, web pages, follow up and working with
two state wide networks of community based organizations (California
Child Care Resource and Referral Network and California Partnership)
for targeted outreach.
CAMPUS EVENTS
Center for Latin American Studies
September 27, 2005 Tuesday
2:00 pm
CLAS Confrence Room
2334 Bowditch Street
“Cooperatives: A Key Line of Agrarian Development
in Cuba”
Armando Nova
Armando Nova is a professor and researcher at the Centro de
Estudios de la Economía Cubana, Universidad de La Habana.
He has studied the cooperative sector in Cuban agriculture,
farmers’ markets in the post-1990 period and the international
linkages of the sugar and citrus industries.
Moderator: Laura Enríquez, Associate Professor of Sociology,
UC Berkeley.
The Cradle Will Rock: October 7-16, 2005
The Cradle Will Rock, Marc Blitzstein's pro-union
musical about the 1930's Labor Movement, will open the TDPS
Main Stage Season, running October 7-16, 2005 at the Zellerbach
Playhouse
BERKELEY- UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance
Studies (TDPS) opens its 2005-06 season with Marc Blitzstein's
The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Bay Area director/actor
Lura Dolas with musical direction by Mark Sumner and choreography
by Rodger Henderson. The production features sets by Stan Kramer,
costumes by Wendy Sparks, and lighting by David K.H. Elliott.
The Cradle Will Rock will run October 7-16 at the Zellerbach
Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus. The October 8 performance
will be followed by a discussion with the directors and designers.
"Music in the theater is a powerful weapon," Blitzstein
wrote of The Cradle Will Rock, his pro-union operetta
about the 1930's Labor Movement. The original production, directed
by Orson Welles and developed within the WPA's Federal Theatre
Project, was banned for political reasons. The premiere was
scheduled to take place at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New
York on June 16, 1937, but the cast was locked out by government
troops. An impromptu performance without sets or costumes took
place that same evening at the Venice Theatre, with Blitzstein
narrating at the piano. Blitzstein dedicated The Cradle
Will Rock to Bertolt Brecht, whom he credited with giving
him the original idea for the musical. The story of the premiere
of Cradle was featured in Tim Robbins 1999 film Cradle Will
Rock.
Composer Marc Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia in 1905. He
performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age
fifteen, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, and trained
with Nadia Boulanger and Arnold Schonberg. Although known to
be gay, Blitzstein married novelist Eva Goldbeck in 1933 (she
died in 1936). His most well known works are The Cradle
Will Rock (1937), the opera Regina (1949 - an
adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes),
and his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny
Opera (1952) which featured Blitzstein's only pop hit,
"Mack the Knife." In 1951 he was subpoenaed to appear
before the House Committee on Un-American Activities where he
admitted to having been a member of the Communist Party. He
was subsequently blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios.
In 1964, Blitzstein was robbed and murdered while vacationing
in Martinique.
Tickets and Information
The Cradle Will Rock opens on October 7 at the Zellerbach
Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus (on Spieker Plaza near the
intersection of Bancroft Way and Dana Street) and runs through
October 16. Performance times are as follows: Oct. 7 (8pm),
Oct. 8 (8pm), Oct. 9 (2pm), Oct. 14 (8pm), Oct. 15 (8pm), Oct.
16 (2pm). Tickets prices are $14.00 general admission; $10.00
for UC faculty/staff; and $8.00 for students/seniors. For tickets,
visit http://theater.berkeley.edu
or call (510) 642-9925. Tickets may be purchased in-person at
the Zellerbach Playhouse box office on Fridays from 1pm to 4pm.
The box office also opens one hour prior to each performance
for ticket sales.
STUDENT GROUP DISCOUNT - $6.00 tickets for groups of 10 or more
students.
Download the student group order form at: http://theater.berkeley.edu
For directions to the Zellerbach Playhouse and more information
about the Department,
please call (510) 642-9925 or visit our website: http://theater.berkeley.edu
Related Events
In conjunction with the production of The Cradle Will Rock,
TDPS is presenting the following special events, which are free
and open to the public. These events take place at the Zellerbach
Playhouse.
Take Back the Power: Bread, Roses, and Revolution:
September 28 at 4pm
Presentation by Professor Leon Litwack, Historian and Pulitzer
Prize winner. In conjunction with the Department's production
of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, this lecture
will examine the history of the labor movement in this country,
including the violent events surrounding the formation of the
CIO, the international scene, and the pro-industry climate that
many feel contributed to U.S. involvement in W.W.I. Litwack
will also discuss the artistic climate in which The Cradle
Will Rock percolated and the extraordinary story of it's
first production.
Panel Discussion: Cradling the New Deal: October
12 at 5pm
An interdisciplinary panel of experts will contextualize The
Cradle Will Rock within histories of labor organizing during
the Great Depression and today. How have the concerns of organized
labor changed since the Depression? What lessons can we learn
about systems of organizing from the play? What is its relevance
for us now? Panel members will include Fred Glass, Peter Glazer,
and Kathleen Moran. Moderated by Shannon Steen.
Editor’s Note on Campus Events:
Many departments and schools have not yet posted their schedules
of colloquia, seminars, lectures and other others, but will
do so shortly after August 26. We will cover relevant events
in future issues as these data become available on campus Web
sites.
Scope of This Newsletter:
This email newsletter alerts the IRLE community and affiliates
to new resources and upcoming events on labor and employment-related
topics at IRLE, around the campus and beyond the campus. The
goal of this service is to provide you with news at a glance,
with links to Web-based information for further information.
How to Subscribe:
Send a message to thuwe@library.berkeley.edu
expressing an interest in receiving this email publication.
You may also wish to subscribe to our general community email
listserv, available to all interested friends of IRLE. This list
is called iirucbnews@lists.berkeley.edu. Please indicate if
you wish to be added to that list in your message.
Tell Us About Your Events
If you know of an event that you’d like to share with the IRLE community,
send a brief description (and Web link) to thuwe@library.berkeley.edu.
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