Matt Noyes is Internet Coordinator for the Association for Union Democracy, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is also an Assistant Professor at Meiji University and teaches "English for Activists" courses for Labor Now, in Tokyo, Japan.
REDO THIS AS AN EDUCATOR's JOURNEY
Teaching work history:
Matt started teaching in 1989, at a community school run by the National Network of Neighborhood Women, then moved on to Adult Education at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York.
With fellow worker and mentor Emily Schnee, Matt moved to a full-time job as a teacher and staff-developer at the Worker-Family Education Program of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU -- now part of UNITE!), an education program that was later merged into the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE).
While at CWE, Matt studied popular education on the job, in a working group on popular education and organizing, and in the process of forming a teachers union chapter, (the CWE chapter of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT).
A successful bit of popular education led to Matt's firing in 200?. The initial charge was "interference in internal union affairs" but it eventually became "insubordination." Matt grieved the firing and filed NLRB charges, it went to arbitration, the teachers union chapter fought for his reinstatement, but in the end he was out.
On the bright side, after months of fighting for the CWE job, Matt got a job at Literacy Partners (now LVA?) as a family literacy teacher. No sooner was he hired than he was fired due to the manager's fear of unionization. This time the NLRB machinery worked: Matt settled an NLRB charge and earned a year's pay that covered the pay lost while fighting the CWE case. (The smoking gun was the testimony of a dedicated educator who had heard the manager's decision, and offered to support my case.)
After volunteering as an educator at the Latino Workers' Center, Matt took part-time jobs at the Bank Street College of Education, LaGuardia Community College, and Empire State College where he taught courses in Labor History and Labor and the Law to apprentice electricians.
Soon after taking a job at the Queens College Worker Education Center at the City University of New York, Matt was hired at AUD, as Education Coordinator.