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Johnson's 50-Year Career a Triumph of Progress for Women, Minorities
Gloria Johnson remembers, word for word, the letter she got from the head of a manufacturing company 40 years ago while she was helping review every IUE contract to ensure that the language reflected the new Civil Rights Act of 1964. If she found anything discriminatory, as she most often did, she wrote to the employer.
"Dear Mrs. Johnson," the letter back to her began. "This is to inform you that we have no problems in our company because we have no Negroes and no women."
A lot has changed in Johnson's 50 years with the labor movement, and she's proud to have been part of the evolution. After earning a master's degree in accounting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she rose from being an IUE bookkeeper to president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council and CWA's women's activities coordinator.
She recently retired from her job at CWA, a position she took after IUE merged with CWA in 2000. But for another year, until her term is up, she'll continue to head CLUW and serve on the federation council.
"In the fight for women's equality in the workplace, and equality for all people, Gloria is one of our heroes," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "She has dedicated herself to fighting every kind of discrimination. I've been proud to work with her at CWA and on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, where she's been an invaluable voice for women, minorities and all working families."
Johnson had been in charge of women's affairs at IUE since the mid 1950s when her boss in the union's research department asked her to be the "representative of female members," who made up more than a third of the union. IUE was already doing a remarkable job at that time in history representing them, with three women, including an African-American, on the IUE Executive Board.
But Johnson and others wanted to do more, and by 1957 the first IUE women's conference was held, drawing 200 women to Washington, D.C., where equal pay and the chance to move to better positions at work - and within the union - were at the top of the agenda.
At IUE, women's equality was on the front burner a full decade before it landed on the national agenda in the 1970s. "We were ahead of the curve," Johnson said. "IUE was the most progressive union in the country."
In 1974, after a series of regional meetings for union women around the country, CLUW was born at a national gathering in Chicago. Johnson, one of the founders, remembers organizers estimating that a few hundred, maybe a thousand women, would come. They drew 3,200 participants including many from CWA, and quickly ran out of food, paperwork and hotel rooms. But nothing dampened their enthusiasm.
Johnson, who recently became a great-grandmother, served as CLUW's treasurer for 17 years and has been its president since 1993. Her work has taken her around the world to represent American women at union conferences and to study women's issues. She has won countless national and international awards and has served on numerous boards and commissions, including an appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to the President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History.
While she's proud of the tremendous movement the country has made toward equality in the last half century, she said there's still enormous work to do, and attitudes to overcome.
"In the past, people came together to fight racism and fight sexism, and laws changed," she said. "But now we're seeing other kinds of discrimination, against gays and lesbians, and I don't see people embracing the fight against it with the same vigor. I want to see that turn around."
"Dear Mrs. Johnson," the letter back to her began. "This is to inform you that we have no problems in our company because we have no Negroes and no women."
A lot has changed in Johnson's 50 years with the labor movement, and she's proud to have been part of the evolution. After earning a master's degree in accounting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she rose from being an IUE bookkeeper to president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council and CWA's women's activities coordinator.
She recently retired from her job at CWA, a position she took after IUE merged with CWA in 2000. But for another year, until her term is up, she'll continue to head CLUW and serve on the federation council.
"In the fight for women's equality in the workplace, and equality for all people, Gloria is one of our heroes," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "She has dedicated herself to fighting every kind of discrimination. I've been proud to work with her at CWA and on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, where she's been an invaluable voice for women, minorities and all working families."
Johnson had been in charge of women's affairs at IUE since the mid 1950s when her boss in the union's research department asked her to be the "representative of female members," who made up more than a third of the union. IUE was already doing a remarkable job at that time in history representing them, with three women, including an African-American, on the IUE Executive Board.
But Johnson and others wanted to do more, and by 1957 the first IUE women's conference was held, drawing 200 women to Washington, D.C., where equal pay and the chance to move to better positions at work - and within the union - were at the top of the agenda.
At IUE, women's equality was on the front burner a full decade before it landed on the national agenda in the 1970s. "We were ahead of the curve," Johnson said. "IUE was the most progressive union in the country."
In 1974, after a series of regional meetings for union women around the country, CLUW was born at a national gathering in Chicago. Johnson, one of the founders, remembers organizers estimating that a few hundred, maybe a thousand women, would come. They drew 3,200 participants including many from CWA, and quickly ran out of food, paperwork and hotel rooms. But nothing dampened their enthusiasm.
Johnson, who recently became a great-grandmother, served as CLUW's treasurer for 17 years and has been its president since 1993. Her work has taken her around the world to represent American women at union conferences and to study women's issues. She has won countless national and international awards and has served on numerous boards and commissions, including an appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to the President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History.
While she's proud of the tremendous movement the country has made toward equality in the last half century, she said there's still enormous work to do, and attitudes to overcome.
"In the past, people came together to fight racism and fight sexism, and laws changed," she said. "But now we're seeing other kinds of discrimination, against gays and lesbians, and I don't see people embracing the fight against it with the same vigor. I want to see that turn around."