“I’m going to do my very best to lift the floor in a meaningful way for regular working people, because that’s what I am, and that’s what we need to do,” Alex Gleason, a 25 year-old policy associate for The New York City Central Labor Council AFL-CIO and New School alum, said.
During his time at The New School, Gleason made sure he took advantage of the university’s resources to maximize his experience.
“I loved it. I loved the education I got,” Gleason said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been there and been exposed to the ideas and the knowledge that I was exposed to. I know that for a fact.”
Completing the BA/MA program––where Gleason earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics at the same time––he was able to receive both of his degrees in four years, graduating in 2013.
Gleason is originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he and other natives jokingly call “The People’s Republic of Massachusetts.” Coming from “a working class community with working class issues,” as Gleason said, he strives to create well-paying middle-class jobs for New Yorkers. The mission of The New York City Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, which Gleason works for, is to provide support, action, and resolve for just about every worker’s union in New York City and state, excluding the Police Department.
“I loved it. I loved the education I got,” Gleason said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been there and been exposed to the ideas and the knowledge that I was exposed to. I know that for a fact.”
Gleason said he is most excited for the future of New York City that he and the Labor Council are working to build. “We have a ton of bills in the city council that we’re gonna pass that are going to raise the floor on wages, standards, and benefits for potentially tens of thousands of New Yorkers,” he said.
In the near future, the organization plans to tackle issues surrounding construction sites. And while construction sites are a nuisance to pedestrians, they pose an even more serious threat to the actual construction workers.
With the high volume of construction and traffic in New York City, construction workers experience extremely dangerous conditions on a daily basis. Gleason states that there have been “18 deaths on construction sites in the last year, most of them on non-union construction sites. If it were any other industry in New York City, there would be hearings, and outrage, and marches, and crocodile tears. But there is silence, and that is an injustice,” he said.
For this reason, Gleason said that his time at The New School helped prepare him to recognize inequities and take action on it.
“At the end of the day, The New School gives you a broad enough picture, which I think sets you up to do whatever you want to do,” he said. “It’s ultimately up to the student to take that and apply it, and to connect the dots to kind of make your own path. That’s what makes it so unique. That approach to me has far more value in the future and in whatever I’m going to do than a degree that I could have gotten anywhere else.”
Alex Gleason is here to tell current students at The New School, and people everywhere, to take control of their future and shape what it is that they wish to become. He said he feels that any goals and dreams that are in your head can come to life, as long as you’re willing to work for it and make it happen. If you take only one thing from Gleason, let it be this: “To think is to create. If you can visualize something, you can create it.”
Photo: Julia Himmel; Illo: Alex Gilbeaux
