Graduate Center Doctoral Student Luke Elliot-Negri Named to 2020 Labor Top 40 Under 40 in New York City and State Magazine Touts Top Labor Activists
NEW YORK, April 13, 2020 — The Graduate Center of The City University of New York congratulates Luke Elliot-Negri, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, who was selected this week as one of the top 40 labor leaders under 40 years of age in New York City by City and State Magazine.
Elliot-Negri is widely recognized for his advocacy on behalf of The Graduate Center’s chapter of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY and the CUNY Research Foundation.-The PSC is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and the AFL-CIO.
He is in the elected leadership of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents some 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY. He is also an officer on the Executive Council, as well as the coordinator for the union’s political action fund, VOTE COPE.
“It is an honor to be publicly recognized for the work of building labor power, but the truth is that there is no way to build power that really matters without dozens, hundreds, thousands, and ultimately millions of leaders,” said Elliot-Negri. “Even just in my small corner of the organized labor universe, the real story is the dozens of people who I’ve worked and struggled alongside for the past six years.”
An officer on the PSC executive council and coordinator for the union’s political action fund, VOTE COPE, Elliott-Negri also chairs The Graduate Center’s PSC. He recently helped lead a campaign for improved pay for the more than 12,000 adjunct professors who make up the majority of the teaching staff at CUNY. A new labor contract was approved by the CUNY board of trustees late last year.
Elliott-Negri is a research associate at the School of Labor and Urban Studies, CUNY. He is author of several articles about industrial unionism and is the co-author of a policy report on Connecticut’s paid sick days law. His dissertation analyzes the history and prospects of the New York–based Working Families Party against the backdrop of the literature on American exceptionalism with respect to party formation. His co-authored book project about social movement success and failure is under review at Oxford University Press.
“The importance and the power of collective action and solidarity has been made even clearer in the coronavirus moment, as grocery clerks, delivery workers, nurses and many more engage in workplace action to protect themselves and their communities, Elliot-Negri said. “I am quite sure that some of those leaders who are under 40 and should be on next year’s City and State’s list.”
About The Graduate Center of The City University of New York
The Graduate Center, CUNY is a leader in public graduate education devoted to enhancing the public good through pioneering research, serious learning, and reasoned debate. The Graduate Center offers ambitious students more than 40 doctoral and master’s programs of the highest caliber, taught by top faculty from throughout CUNY — the nation’s largest public urban university. Through its nearly 40 centers, institutes, initiatives, and the Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate Center influences public policy and discourse and shapes innovation. The Graduate Center’s extensive public programs make it a home for culture and conversation.
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