The Worker Institute Welcomes Newest Fellow, Roberta Reardon

We are very pleased to announce Roberta Reardon as the newest Worker Institute Fellow.

After graduating from the NYS AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute in 2006, while she was Vice President of NYC AFTRA, she became President of the NYC local, then President of national AFTRA.  She was instrumental in the merger of SAG and AFTRA and became one of the two, co-founding Presidents when the merger was approved.

She is now working with the AFL-CIO as a liaison to unions around the country on implementing their Common Sense Economics curriculum.

Roberta is currently working on The Worker Institute’s publicly funded project on New Formations in the Arts and Entertainment Industry. The project involves conducting interviews and focus groups among the unions, creative professionals, and new workers in the live performance, film, music, and radio/television industries in NYC for the purpose of developing case studies.  These cases will be used as the basis for dialogue among unions about the changing nature of the industry and the need for new thinking about how these unions represent a changing workforce. The industry has traditionally been a stronghold for organized labor but A&E unions are facing many challenges from changing technology, a changing relationship between audiences and artists, and the emergence of new forms of entertainment.    

She also has been teaching in our Cornell/CUNY Labor Relations Certificate program.  She teaches a course on leadership in unions, and a course on contemporary issues for labor.

Please join us in welcoming her to The Worker Institute!