Assistant to the Director
Office hours: 8:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 1:00–4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, EST/DST
IUP Office
9 Keith Hall
390 Pratt Drive
Indiana, PA 15705
Telephone: 724-357-3841
E-mail: cynthia.spielman@iup.edu
Spielman has been the assistant to the director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Labor Relations at IUP since 1989. She coordinates conferences and workshops for trade unionists throughout the state of Pennsylvania as well as several other surrounding states. Most recently, she put together a committee where she served as chair for a conference titled Southwestern Pennsylvania Union Women’s Symposium, and developed an award honoring a woman from the southwestern region of the state. This award, Maida Springer Union Woman of the Year, was named to honor its first recipient, Maida Springer. In 2002, Spielman established and helped coordinate the annual Workers’ Memorial Day ceremonies, recognizing and paying tribute to those workers who have been insured or died at the workplace due to accidents and occupational diseases.
From 1994 to 1996, Spielman served as president of Local 763 for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). This local is made up of more than 550 members working in the maintenance, clerical, and custodial departments at IUP. During the 1995–1996 year, she served on the negotiating team at the state level for AFSCME as well as a bargaining representative for AFSCME membership employed at one of the fourteen statewide universities. She was a newsletter editor for her local, and she served as a delegate, both during the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention and the Pennsylvania AFSCME conventions. She served as a union steward from 1991 to 2001 for Locals 763 and 1983 of AFSCME. From 2005 to 2007, she served as president of AFSCME Local 1983—a state inspection, safety, and investigation unit. She is a delegate to the Indiana, Armstrong, and Clarion counties Central Labor Council as well as its past secretary-treasurer.
In 2005 Spielman ran for public office—state representative for the 62nd legislative district, encompassing two-thirds of Indiana County.
Spielman’s teaching background goes back to 1983, where she taught for a business school in Altoona. She has been teaching for the Pennsylvania Labor Center since 1993, when she first taught a section on costing a labor agreement for a workshop that made the Pennsylvania Labor Center famous in Pennsylvania—Negotiations. (See a list of workshops your local can arrange to have presented by the Pennsylvania Labor Center.)
Spielman holds several degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In December 1997, she earned a Master of Business Administration. She holds two undergraduate degrees—Accounting and Education. Her educational background doesn’t just stop at the university level. She has attended courses at the National Labor College (formerly the George Meany Center) in Silver Spring, Md., as well as trainings provided by the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and AFSCME.
