MotorCities National Heritage Area
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September 23, 2021

MotorCities’ 2021 Lunch & Learn Series returns with a FREE live panel discussion via Zoom on Wednesday, September 29 at 12 p.m. EDT featuring the topic "Building the Auto Industry: The History of Organized Labor." 

Panelists will discuss critical moments over a century of organized labor, examining lessons from our past which shape our present and drive our future. 

The moderator will be Gavin Strassel, UAW Archivist, Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University. The official archivist of the United Auto Workers, Strassel has been a labor archivist since 2014 and is active in both the Michigan Labor History Society and the Metro Detroit Archivists League. 

The panelists include: 

  • Jeannette Bradshaw, Recording Secretary, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) - Bradshaw is the Recording Secretary and Registrar for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 58 in Detroit. A 20-year member and journeyman electrician, she currently is the elected Financial Secretary of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO.
  • David Elsila, Retired UAW Education Department - Elsila worked as editor of the UAW Solidarity magazine from 1976-1998 and is a member of the Program Committee of the Michigan Labor History Society. He is also a former board member of MotorCities National Heritage Area.
  • Sandra Engle, Office of the President, UAW;
  • John Lepley, Department of Education & Membership Development, United Steelworkers (USW) - Lepley works in the United Steelworkers’ Department of Education and Membership Development. Prior to that, he organized for other unions in Connecticut, Alaska, and Colorado. John is a graduate of the masters program in labor and reform movement history at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

Get more information and register by clicking www.motorcities.org/2020-lunch-learn-series.