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Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP)
When the Seattle School Administration planned to destroy the living wages of union school bus drivers, undermine affirmative action, and threaten the safety of students, we mobilized protests with the broader community. Teamsters Local 763 and Machinist 289 union members joined with Seattle Young People's Project (SYPP), Students For Fair Trade, Citizen's Campaign for Commercial-free Schools, and many more youth and community-based organizations to stand against this violation of our rights and values. After several large and spirited rallies at School Board meetings, the board was forced to postpone a quick decision and open the process to more input. At one hearing, the School Administration attempted to lock out meeting participants with a sign "Fire Code Capacity Reached, No Further Admittance." Eventually, a majority of the Board committed to monitor how the planned changes are implemented in a deeply charged debate.
Jobs with Justice has helped grow a Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP) nationally and jointly with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), and United States Students Association (USSA). For the last 3 years, SLAP has brought youth and labor together in action to mark the April 4th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. As an illustration in 2002, we mobilized with youth and student organizations for the bus driver protest at the Seattle School Board meeting on April 3 and projected the struggle to national attention as part of the over 100 SLAP events in 90 cities across 31 states.
SLAP is committed to bolster and strengthen the network of student and youth organizations and activists engaged in supporting workplace justice issues. Locally, we are looking for opportunities to support campaigns where the interests of labor and youth intersect. Our goal is to link closely specific labor struggles with student organization activism.
We have also worked with youth activists through SLAP trainings called Grassroots Organizing Weekends. Last year, we co-organized with MeCHA and the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the UW our second Grassroots Organizing Weekend (GROW) with youth leaders and activists of color. The trainings provide a strategic breakdown of campus power and vulnerability as well as practice to take the plan to victory. The program is instructed by experienced youth activists for hundreds of local JwJ, USSA, and, USAS chapters across the country. For more on past JwJ GROWs, click links at left.
If you or your group are interested in getting involved with SLAP in Washington State, please contact the Jobs with Justice office. To get involved in the SLAP student group at the University of Washington, send an email to slapuw@wsjwj.org.
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