The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-18
Dubinsky Calls
Training Institute
Major Union Move

important event in my life and in
the life of the union." That is the
way David Dubinsky, president of
the AFL international Ladies Gar
ment Workers, described the open
| ing of the unions training insti-
tute May 1. He advised the labor
movement to watch the novel eX-
pertinent closely as possible
answer to the acute shortage of
labor leaders in the United States
"Who knows but that among you
may be future President of the
iILGWU", said Dubinsky as he fac
| ed the training institutes first
lclass of 32 men and five women
out of $50 applicants chosen for
their desire to devote their lives
| to the labor movement.
The ILGWU executive board has
voted an initial annual budget OF
100000 for the institute.
"Somebody has told me that you
can't train leaders," he told dis
ltinguished audience of educators
and labor leaders at ILGWU head
quarters, ITO Broadway, "but ]
wasn't born a President" He drew
a laugh as he limited that he might
have made the jumps to the TOP
faster if he had training the young
folks sitting before him are about
to begin. He admitted, too, that the
labor leader of the future will need
to be an expert in government af-
fairs, in statistics, and other fields
not required of the present genera
ton.
To ILGWU officers afraid that
the young people might supplant
them, Mr.. Dubinsky said, "don't
be scared, pointing out the
ILGWU has ITO more officers now
than in 1943. ''There is plenty of
room for new blood"
He described the prosperity of
his union but said that so far it
has not built leadership for the
future. Whether the training school
will be the answer, he said, will de-
pend largely on the skill with which
the institute is conducted.
"You will have to work very,
very hard; you don't become a
labor leader through comfort,
julius Hochman, chairman of the
ILGWU's educational committee,
warned the students. He indicated
it was big innovation for unions
to open their doors to students
without union connections, though
union members and children of
members will be favored as appli-
cants to the institute. Ten of the
first institute class are members of
the ILGWU; Ia have ILGWU con-
nections and three have other
union connections. The other five
have no union connections.
In the past, Hochman said,
unions have been loathe to trust
outsiders because too often the in
tellectual turned out to be some
one trying to use the labor move
ment for social changes he believ-
ed in. In the training institute, he
said emphasis will be laid on hav-
ing the students become an inte-
grail part of the labor movement.
He revealed that the ILGWU is
now spending approximately $780,
900 a year on educational activities.
Since 1910 it has maintained Of
ficers' qualification courses in New
York and for a while supported
labor fellowships at Harvard and
Cornell.
The new "ILGWU" Training In
stitute is a day school, offering a
full one-year course; seven months
of class work and five months of
field work, entailing visiting shops,
observing at close range the work
of organizers, business agents and
managers, the impartial chairman
machinery where it exists, the pro-
cedures in organization, and the
following up of labor relations
cases.
Outside lecturers and key people
familiar with the various facets of
Industrial education will supple