Supply Chain Strategies
Workshop Description:
Input or finished good supply chains, as well as the third party contractors and vendors involved, are a key aspect of corporate strategy. Seeking to understand the chain of control for a specific commodity or product, as well as the rationale behind choices made by corporations, is vital to identifying core geographies, redundancies, and weaknesses. This workshop will cover both defining supply chains and key actors as well as go to sources for initial research. Sheheryar Kaoosji of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center and Cassandra Ogren of the Teamsters will also discuss mapping, targeting, and the viabliity of research to drive strategy and inform organizing.
Workshop Leaders:
Sheheryar Kaoosji is the Executive Director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. He has spent 20 years developing research, policy and campaign strategies to support deep and sustained organizing among the most marginalized and critical communities in California, including families facing displacement in San Francisco, farm workers in the state’s agricultural valleys, misclassified truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles and, for the past 10 years, workers and communities affected by the massive warehousing and logistics sector of Inland Southern California. He was behind the WWRC’s innovative campaign model to organize workers in the supply chains of the largest companies in the world, and the WWRC’s broader communities to demand a sustainable and just goods movement sector in Southern California.
Cassandra Ogren is the Assistant Director of the Teamsters Strategic Initiatives Department, where she leads the department’s Research Unit. She has been with the Teamsters since 2006. Cassandra develops strategic research agendas to advance organizing and bargaining goals of the union and leads a staff of researchers specialized in core Teamster industries such as freight, warehousing, and package delivery. She collaborates with academic partners on policy research to advance the union’s goals and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Labor Research & Action Network, which brings together union staff and labor scholars to develop new research agendas and build skills. In 2022, she completed an MBA at Florida International University with a concentration in Marketing Channel Strategy. She also holds an MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a BA from Oberlin College.
