What is your educational background? What prepared you for this job?
I have a bachelor's degree, but I have to say, I didn't really need it to do this at all. It certainly doesn't hurt to have some knowledge about labor history, but the most useful
skill a union organizer can have is the ability to listen, and you don't necessarily learn that in school.
The biggest part of organizing is listening to people's concerns and learning about what their workplace is like so you can figure out what issues are most important to people. Then when it comes time to bargain a contract, you can help them address all of those issues in the contract and make improvements.
One thing that I did study a lot in college (and would have been my major if majors existed at Sarah Lawrence) was art. It has actually been pretty useful as an organizer, because I have often been asked to work on designing posters, flyers, brochures, etc. Knowing something about design helps to make all that stuff look more professional.
How have you observed women's roles as organizers?
I happen to be part of a pretty matriarchial union, actually (which is not always the case in the UAW, the international union I work under). Our local President and many of the staff and leadership of the union are women. We do a lot of white-collar organizing of clerical workers, and since mostly women work in that field, that is where the leadership tends to come from.
What is a woman's role as an organized worker?
Women have a huge role as organized workers. We all know that women still make less money on the dollar than men in the same jobs and the best way to counter that is with a union contract.
We represent clerical staff at Columbia University, and before there was a union there, women and minorities made much less money and were promoted less often than white men. When they won their first contract, they included non-discrimination language to start to address the problem, and since then the situation has gotten MUCH better for women and minorities there.
Are you active in other social or political groups or causes?
Being a union organizer doesn't allow a huge amount of time for other things, unfortunately. But, there aren't too many jobs where you can go to a rally all day and consider it "work."
There are also a lot of opportunities to do political organizing in the union. Our union endorses candidates and I have spent time helping them to get out the vote.
Our union also passed a resolution against the war in Iraq, and we have participated in many anti-war activities and marches.
What was high school like for you? Were you politically active then?
Not really--this has been kind of an awakening. I always considered myself to be a "lefty," but this has really given me an opportunity to stop complaining about politics and start doing something positive.
Do you have any advice for a young women who wants to get involved?
There are TONS of volunteer opportunities in labor organizing. And, as with most things, it is most effective to "act locally."
If you are in high school or college, find out if there are organized workers at your school (clerical, grad students, maintenance and security workers and teachers all have unions at different schools). Give them a call and see if there is anything they need help with.
If you are really serious, the AFL-CIO (the national umbrella organization of lots of unions) runs "Organizing Institute" workshops. These are intensive weekend-long practical training sessions to teach you the basics of organizing, and unions often recruit organizers from the OI. They are extremely informative and helpful if you are just starting out. (Find out more about them here: www.aflcio.org)
page [
1,
2]
