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Claude Fort graduates from Harvard program

Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 recently completed an intensive six-week course of labor studies at Harvard University. The Harvard Trade Union Program ran from Jan. 7 to Feb. 15 for students from all over the world who took courses on issues in union organizing, labor history, the global economy, strategic planning and leadership.

“It was an incredible learning experience in a very stimulating environment with interesting discussions every day,” said Fort, who was awarded a scholarship from Harvard to attend.

The program is organized by an interdisciplinary team of Harvard faculty and taught as a series of thematically related seminars. The diverse seminars provide an opportunity for participants to meet a variety of Harvard faculty, guests from neighboring universities and senior labor leaders to discuss important topics of concern to labor and the world of work.

“One of the things that I came away with is that it’s very important at this stage, with the threat of globalization, for unions to build alliances and work together,” said Fort. “No one union can solve everything.”