The Bargaining for the Common Good network is growing! This Spring we are excited to welcome Alisha Volante and Sandra Jeong Lane to the BCG team. Alisha will be based at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and serve as Strategic Initiatives Director and Sandra will be based at the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization and serve as Education Director. See both of their biographies below.
Alisha Volante is the Strategic Initiatives Director at KI focused on Bargaining for the Common Good. Previously, she worked for Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) as a research coordinator in Labor and housing, Senior Program Director at Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United), and Research and Communications Director at SEIU Local 26. Alisha is a Minnesota native and has worked with the University of Minnesota, The Minnesota Historical Society, and Twin Cities Public Television on various projects focused on the history and lived experience of Black, Indigenous, and people of color across the state. She has experience in community engagement and conducting community based projects. She conducted her graduate work at the University of Minnesota with a focus in United States History (Modern), African American History, Race & Race relations. Alisha is a proud soldier in the fight to secure more rights for poor and working class citizens in the United States.
Sandra Jeong Lane (she/her) has organized with workers to build power across the East and West coast for over a decade. At the healthcare union HPAE, Sandra worked with union members in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to run contract campaigns and fight for legislation that put patients over profits. In the face of anti-union attacks including the “Janus” decision, Sandra worked with SEIU 32BJ to develop communications strategy with airport workers, cleaners, and security guards to grow union membership. Sandra also organized with CWA to develop a political activist program to influence key elections across Pennsylvania. Before joining BCG, she ran AFSCME education programs throughout the Pacific Northwest to build power for organizing, bargaining, and racial justice campaigns. Sandra is from the California Bay Area and studied Politics and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. She completed her Masters in Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts.
