Biography

Fred Kotler is a trainer and presenter in the areas of leadership and organizational development, presentation skills, strategic planning, and labor relations. He is a policy analyst and author of policy reports and articles focused on construction industry issues: Project Labor Agreements, responsible contracting, prevailing wage law, and worker misclassification. 

Fred worked as a community and union organizer, business agent, and union staff representative.  He taught for many years at the National Labor College and the Building Trades Academy coordinating and delivering courses on construction organizing and strategic planning. He has written or co-written five training manuals for national audiences on behalf of Cornell University, the AFL-CIO, and the US Department of Transportation.

Fred worked at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations for twenty-five years and served as Director, Cornell / New York State AFL-CIO Union Leadership Institute and Associate Director, Cornell Construction Industry Program.  Prior to his work at Cornell, Fred was Director, Labor Education Program, Northern Michigan University.

A Chicago native, Fred attended Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and received his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He was inducted into the Upper Peninsula (Michigan) Labor Hall of Fame in 2006. He lives in Marquette, Michigan.