DePaul University’s Labor Education Center (LEC), led by Director Jessica Cook-Qurayshi, is strengthening the labor movement through practical training for union members, tailored workshops for local unions and a growing set of youth programs that introduce collective bargaining, workplace rights and organizing skills to high school and college students.
In today’s conversation on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Cook-Qurayshi described how the LEC operates as a small, self-funded unit with an outsized footprint across Chicagoland and beyond, delivering leadership certificates, advanced bargaining education and intergenerational programming designed to build long-term worker power.
Labor education is often discussed as a “nice to have” until a steward faces a first grievance, a bargaining committee is drafting proposals under pressure, or a new generation of workers is trying to understand why wages are not keeping up with the cost of living.
At DePaul University, the Labor Education Center is treating education as infrastructure for the labor movement: practical, repeatable and designed to build capacity across unions, workplaces and communities.
On the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Jessica Cook-Qurayshi, Director of DePaul’s Labor Education Center (LEC), outlined a model that blends nuts-and-bolts training with political education and youth programming. The goal, she said, is straightforward: strengthen the labor movement for a more just society by teaching workers their rights and how to exercise them collectively.
Cook-Qurayshi’s own path reflects the mix of organizing and education that defines the center’s work. She began as a student and community organizer in Kansas, a so-called “Right-to-Work” state where labor is often present but not always visible. Her entry into the labor movement deepened when family stories surfaced, including her grandfather’s experience in the IBEW and his willingness to publicly challenge corporate power.
She later became a full-time organizer with UNITE HERE, traveling across the country to support organizing drives among food service workers and other low-wage workers. The work offered a national view of labor’s challenges and opportunities, but also underscored the value of community accountability and long-term relationships.
That commitment led her to doctoral study in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was active in graduate worker organizing and focused her research on workers marginalized by citizenship laws, incarceration and other structural barriers. She also studied worker centers and other forms of organizing among workers who may be excluded from traditional union pathways.
Nearly a decade into her tenure at DePaul’s LEC, Cook-Qurayshi said the center remains a “small jewel” with a clear mission and a growing network.
Cook-Qurayshi described the LEC as a self-funded unit within DePaul University, operating with a lean staff and a broad ecosystem of instructors and advisors.
The center’s structure includes:
That model, she said, reflects labor values in practice: collective contribution, shared leadership and accountability to a wider community.
A central pillar of the LEC’s work is skills-based training for union members and emerging leaders.
Cook-Qurayshi highlighted the Labor Leadership Certificate, a six-course program designed for stewards, officers and members preparing for greater responsibility. The curriculum covers core areas that directly affect workplace power and contract enforcement, including:
The program is built for real-world applications. Participants are expected to bring workplace issues into the learning environment and leave with tools they can use immediately.
The LEC has also expanded deeper bargaining education through an advanced bargaining certificate.
Cook-Qurayshi said the program focuses on union-side contract proposal writing and contract costing, skills that can determine whether bargaining teams can translate priorities into enforceable language and sustainable economic packages.
In a period when employers often arrive at the table with sophisticated financial narratives, she argued that unions benefit from building internal capacity to evaluate costs, model tradeoffs, and communicate strategy to members.
Beyond certificates, the LEC provides customized workshops and training for unions upon request, as well as public workshops open to broader audiences.
This approach allows the center to support unions at different stages, from locals seeking steward refreshers to bargaining committees preparing for negotiations to organizers sharpening campaign skills.
One of the LEC’s newer tools is a weekly email newsletter originally developed during the pandemic.
Cook-Qurayshi said the newsletter now reaches more than 1,000 people each week with:
The newsletter also functions as a connective tissue across unions and community partners, helping workers stay informed as laws and enforcement priorities shift.
Cook-Qurayshi described youth programming as the center’s most distinctive feature, built through decades of partnerships with teachers and schools across Chicagoland.
A flagship initiative is the collective bargaining roleplay program, which introduces students to bargaining concepts through a structured simulation. The program pairs students with volunteer coaches from the labor movement, including stewards, officers and retirees who share experience and industry knowledge.
Cook-Qurayshi said the roleplay lessons teach students how bargaining works in practice: wages, benefits, health insurance and the importance of a unified strategy. It also introduces concepts like grievance procedures and the idea that workplace rights are defended collectively, not individually.
The program’s scale is significant. Cook-Qurayshi reported that the roleplay reached roughly 1,800 students last year across more than a dozen schools.
The LEC’s youth programming extends beyond roleplay into summer learning and paid placements.
Cook-Qurayshi outlined several programs:
A consistent design choice is stipends. Cook-Qurayshi said compensation improves access and reinforces a core labor principle: if people are contributing to labor education and movement-building, they should be paid.
Cook-Qurayshi emphasized that youth programs are not only about teaching younger workers. They are also about keeping the broader movement responsive.
She argued that intergenerational exchange helps:
In her view, labor education is not only a curriculum, but a survival strategy for the movement.
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