Lou Stollar: The intellectuals’ unionist

When Lou Stollar first started teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1956, he and his colleagues had to punch a time clock. It was a work rule that punched his buttons too, so inappropriate did it seem for professionals. That was one reason why he and a handful of others formed a union in the mid-1960s. That union went on to negotiate the first two-year college faculty contract in the nation in 1967. Two years later, Stollar became its second president and led the union until he retired on Nov. 1, 2004.

Getting the respect and treatment worthy of professionals was a first accomplishment of the union. Another was deciding early on to bring in the other workers at FIT, the classified staff and part-time faculty that by 1970 had joined with the full-time faculty and professional staff to make up the wall-to-wall Union of College Employees/AFT. “That’s my most important accomplishment,” says Stollar, for both the benefit the union brings to thousands at the college and the strength those members provide to the union.

Stollar is at once a friendly bear of a man and someone you’d rather not encounter across the table, say his colleagues. The son of Russian immigrants—his father started out with a pushcart on the streets of lower Manhattan—Stollar is a worldly man: an avid traveler who doesn’t forget his roots, says his long-time friend and former UCE executive vice president Judy Parkas. He is an intellectual’s unionist, “like Albert Shanker was,” who is “amazingly good at knowing how to use power for action. He knows how to mobilize people to get things done.” She cites the best example, when he “almost single-handedly got an unsuccessful president and an unsuccessful administration changed” at FIT.

He is an inclusive leader, always gathering up people to do things, to come to meetings, to write their thoughts about what should be in the contract, to serve on faculty blue-ribbon panels to prepare for leadership roles in the union. “He would say,” reports Parkas, “‘If you want a union to be democratic, you have to be in touch with your membership.’ He’s fun. People like to be around him.” She pauses, then adds, “Not everyone would agree.”

“There have been times when I have thought, I’m glad I’m not sitting on the other side of the table,” says Juliette Romano, who has served on the negotiating team for 17 years and is now UCE president. “He is incredibly skillful at negotiations. It’s awe-inspiring. He has an ability to, on the spot, develop creative solutions to knotty problems. His strength is seeing the big picture, having a vision about where the union needed to go, recognizing opportunities to improve the lives of members.”

Romano describes the early organizing of the adjuncts as an opportunity to grow the union but also as a chance to show what unionism is all about: protecting the weakest workers.

“Never forget that we’re a union,’” he would constantly remind his members. “We don’t represent the students, we represent the employees. If we don’t get what’s best for employees, we’re not serving students.”

Not that the needs of students are ever far from his mind. The union has a scholarship program that awards up to $14,000 a year. Two scholarships, worth $3,000 each, are named for Stollar.

Stollar has taken his union convictions far beyond New York City. He served as the community college representative on the New York State United Teachers and has been a member of the AFT Higher Education program and policy council since its first incarnation as an advisory group more than 20 years ago. He also has been involved in Education International, working with unionists from all over the world.

Stollar’s plans for retirement include working with immigrants who are learning English and volunteering time and expertise for the American Civil Liberties Union. “I’m concerned about what is happening to this country and threats to our civil liberties,” says this son of an immigrant who voted in every election after becoming a citizen. “I want to do whatever I can.”