SDA Delegates visit Cornell ILR

On Tuesday, September 5, Cornell ILR hosted a delegation of five Australian labor leaders from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) at our NYC conference center. SDA is Australia’s largest private sector union, representing 210,00 workers in retail, warehousing, fast food and other related industries. The majority of SDA members are women (60%), under 35 years old (57%), and low-income. The delegation included Gerard Dwyer, SDA National Secretary-Treasurer, who was recently elected president of UNI Global Union, which represents 20 million service sector workers in 150 countries. The SDA delegates met with Cornell ILR faculty to learn more about The Worker Institute and Climate Jobs Institute. They were especially interested in Cornell’s labor leadership development programs and the union-university partnerships that support and sustain our work. Worker Institute Executive Director Patricia Campos Medina hosted the visit.