Some people are driven to enter the corporate world, but others dedicate their professional lives to the pursuit of social justice. To give students a feel for the latter, 13 prominent labor leaders and activists made it through inclement weather to attend the fourth annual School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) Roundtable at Cornell, Nov. 17, in the Statler Ballroom.

According to ILR Dean Harry Katz, the roundtable -- attended by 80 students from Cornell and, for the first time, from Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) -- is a great avenue for students to learn about labor unions and social justice because the recruiting process is not always straightforward in these sectors. "To enter these organizations, you must learn how to make it through the maze, and these people can help you go through that maze," he said.

The roundtable is seen as a noncorporate counterpart to the corporate career fairs held on campus, said Regina Duffey Moravek, director of the ILR Career Service Office. "Over 24 percent of Cornell undergraduates go into educational, government and nonprofit sectors," she noted.

The participants, whose backgrounds included respiratory therapy and aircraft engine grinding, spoke to small groups of students in 20-minute sessions, elaborating on the many pathways to becoming an active participant in labor issues. "Anything you're pursuing in your life, you can find it in the labor movement," said Marvin Holland, an executive board member of the Transport Workers Union of America, Local 100.

Speakers, who came from such diverse organizations as the nonprofit Worker's Rights Consortium, the Wall Street Journal and the United Steelworkers of America, shared a common thread in their focus on contemporary global labor issues. Joell Melina of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said: "Once you get in [the labor market], you can't see yourself doing anything else."

The students' backgrounds were equally diverse. Jimmy Tran, a visiting natural resources doctoral student from the University of California-Berkeley, said: "I study Chinese labor and environmental policy, so attending the roundtable might help me find contacts for my future research in southern China."

Bryn Roshong '08, a communication major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said: "I'm interested in how unions use the media, and I hope that, by having a career in independent media, I can help push mainstream media to give more recognition to mainstream labor issues."

The important thing, said the United Steelworkers' Diane Heminway, is for a person to pursue a career that is a good match for interests and passions. "If you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life," she said.

"The idea for the labor roundtable came four years ago, when students in the Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA), a pro-labor student group, began to feel like the myriad pro-management career events were not matched by similar union events," said Wes Hannah '07, a COLA member and one of the roundtable's organizers. The first and succeeding roundtables are the result of the efforts of dedicated students, the perseverance of Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of ILR Labor Education Research, as well as the assistance of the ILR Office of Career Services and funding from the ILR Dean's Office, he said.

Graduate student Anne Poduska is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.