In The News
...Sameerah Ahmad, a current graduate student at DePaul University who graduated from the Labor Center four years ago, said that she was disappointed to read Weinbaum’s letter, saying that someone like her would not be able to attend the Labor Center now. Coming from a working class family as a queer woman of color, Ahmad said she relied on a teaching assistantship and diversity fellowship to attend the Labor Center.
Ahmad said she was attracted to the Labor Center by the promise of being taught by people with hands-on experience in labor movements, and that the program emphasized labor over management, peaking her interest in it.
“I had heard over the years there were pressures placed on the Labor Center,” she said. “By the time I came there were only a few professors. It seemed like there was this general pressure.” (Continued)
...Sameerah Ahmad, of Chicago, graduated from the center in 2011 and then became executive director of the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center. She said the center gave her knowledge and access to a network of people who helped her launch a successful career.
“[If] they put so much resource limits on the center they’re not going to be able to support women or people of color or working-class people . . . that may not otherwise be able to go to graduate school,” said Ahmad, a first-generation student."
"There's something about people who cannot accept differences in other people. The differences are not that important, but they don't have the wisdom to see it. We as humans have not learned to behave ourselves."
— Felicia Childress (retired school teacher from Gary)
Sameerah Ahmad works for a graduate student union at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ahmad, 27, was raised in Shelby and attended Lowell High School. (Continued)
...In addition to the rally, Sameerah Ahmad, one of GEO’s two union organizers, has set up the GEO’s first Craft Beer Night on Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. Ahmad said the idea came from an event she helped plan during her three-year span as executive director for the Cincinnati Interfaith Worker Center. (Continued)
...“We’ve been here every year, and we’re trying to grow our numbers,” said Sameerah Ahmad, a local organizer working with CIW at the protest. “We’ve been organizing these protests for a few years. We want to show escalation and pressure and show we’re not going way.
Kroger is the nation’s largest grocer after Wal-Mart, with total sales of more than $34 billion. The chain has not yet responded to calls to join fair food efforts. While the company itself hasn’t participated directly in any known agricultural injustices, Ahmad said that as part of the produce industry, the company should make sure it’s sourcing its food ethically.
“Kroger can take a big step by supporting workers’ rights in the fields,” she said. (Continued)
...Sameerah Ahmad first came to a Labor Notes Conference as a student activist and was impressed to find a place where rank-and-file workers, union activists, and troublemakers of all stripes—from all over the world—had a home.
Now she's the director of the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, and she brought 12 members along with her to Chicago for the May 4-6 Labor Notes gathering. But even with a dozen folks participating in workshops, she said they couldn't get to everything they wanted to at the 1,500-person conference.
"You can get depressed hearing all the stories of low-wage and immigrant workers," Ahmad said. But at Labor Notes, "the energy is amazing." Vision sharpens, and all of a sudden the movement that can stand up against the odds comes into view. (Continued)
...Sameerah Ahmad is quiet, perhaps shy, and lives above the local coffee shop. Despite her reserved personality she was a key organizer and eventually became the student president of POLE. In addition, she replaced the past student representative on the President’s Committee, Rita Dongas. (Continued)
...The contract termination was brought about by the actions that surrounded the closings of two apparel manufacturing factories in Honduras. Investigations found evidence of labor-management conflicts at the Honduras plants.
Sameerah Ahmad, a senior in the college of Liberal Arts and a member of Purdue Organization for Labor Equality, said the contract termination is something the group has pushed for.
“Students have been organizing around issues since 2000, but a contract has never been cut,” Ahmad said. “POLE is happy and excited that they cut the Russell contract.” (Continued)
..."There was a lot of talk back and forth between the committee, the president and our organization," said Sameerah Ahmad, president of POLE. "(Attendees were) comparing Cordova's last university at Riverside, comparing that to here at Purdue, talking a little about other Indiana universities and what they've done."
Ahmad said she was disappointed that University officials still haven't made any concrete decisions, but is still hopeful that Cordova will endorse the program.
"You can tell that she cares about the situation and wants to change it," she said. "She wants Purdue to be behind it. Physically she can sign onto it, but she wants the support of the University." (Continued)