Minnesota Union Leadership Program
An innovative educational series designed to address the most critical issues facing working people in Minnesota.
About MULP
Now in its 14th cohort, the Minnesota Union Leadership Program equips participants with the knowledge and skills to address the challenges facing working people and our movements.
Through six in-depth sessions scheduled over eight months, participants study working people's movements — past, present, and future — while learning together how workers succeed in building a more just and equitable society. Emerging and established worker activists build relationships and network with their fellow cohort members as well as others from the labor movement and other social movements.
Schedule
Note: The program is designed to meet the needs of each cohort. The final agenda for each session will be shared with participants prior to that session.
Worker Culture and Power
We will look at how law, culture, and institutional structures have shaped and restricted the activities of workers who pursue economic and social justice.
Understanding the Labor Movement
We will explore the roots of racial capitalism and how changes over the last 50 years have aggressively altered the balance of power between workers and employers. Together, we will think creatively about actions and ideas that will move us toward a more equitable world.
Workers in Media
Together we will explore the power of narrative and our own agency and ability to shape how worker movements are represented.
Labor as Social Movement
Together we will brainstorm how to build an intersectional worker movement that seeks to address the multitude of injustices that workers and communities face.
Building Worker Power
Participants will learn how to build worker power in their own organizations and communities by drawing on the experiences and expertise of seasoned organizers.
Creating the Labor Movement We Want
Together we will envision the labor movement we want to see and strategize together about how to bring it into existence. We will celebrate the participants' graduation from MULP in a reception after the final session.
Note: You must attend 5 sessions to graduate and receive a certificate.
Share S'mores and Strategies
The program starts at Ruttger's Bay Lake Resort near Brainerd where participants spend two nights, build relationships, and engage the topics of the first two sessions.
(The remaining four day-long sessions take place on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.)
Selection Consideration
- Participation is limited to ensure a quality educational experience.
- We request that no more than three individuals apply from any single local union or organization.
- Historically and structurally excluded people, including all people of color, women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, disabled people, and people under age 35 are strongly encouraged to apply.
Deadline for the 2025-2026 MULP is now closed. Please join us for the 15th cohort next year!
Tuition is $2,500, due upon acceptance to the program. The fee includes lodging for two nights and meals at Ruttger’s Bay Lake Resort, parking, light breakfast, lunch, and snacks at the Humphrey sessions, and all program materials and instruction. Each participant gets their own room at Ruttger's.