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The Translators and Interpreters Guild: These CWAers Speak Your Language
Today's information age is bringing diverse groups of professionals to the realization that they are indeed (1) workers (2) who as individuals are often exploited and (3) who can improve their pay and working conditions by banding together. In other words, they need a union.
Professional interpreters and translators have belonged to various management-oriented associations over the years, but the first group that sees itself as a union dedicated to serving its members is The Translators and Interpreters Guild, an affiliate of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.
(Wondering about the difference between a translator and interpreter? Translators convert written words from one language to another, while interpreters convert speech. Translators envy the fact that an interpreter goes in, does a job and can leave; interpreters envy translators who they think have less time pressure to do their work.)
The TTIG, chartered as TNG-CWA Local 32100, grew out of a meeting of seven people, mostly translators, in New Orleans eight years ago, according Sally E. Robertson, a founder and former president.
They decided to approach the AFL-CIO for organizing help, she said, and one of the seven, Tom Malionek, called up a friend at the federation and was told The Newspaper Guild would be a logical home for the group.
"We're a natural fit," says TTIG President Nancy Rocha of Silver Spring, Md., an interpreter. "Plus, because we're nationwide and our members speak and write so many different languages we can quickly and efficiently fulfill any customers' needs," she noted.
Or, as TTIG's motto expresses it, "We know who speaks your language."
Today, TTIG membership stands at about 400 throughout the United States and also including Canada, Latin America and Europe, making it CWA's most geographically diverse affiliate.
Rocha and George Roth of Alexandria, Va., a translator who chairs the union's marketing committee, are busy promoting TTIG's referral service, particularly among CWA officers, staff and members. The union provides a toll-free referral number: 1-800-992-0367.
A Growing Membership
Until recently, Rocha says, most TTIG members were truly independent contractors, working alone or in small groups and without a common bond other than their union membership and the referral service.
That may be changing.
"Judicial interpreters" in Massachusetts - not court reporters, but those persons who may be called to represent a defendant whose native language is something other than English - recently joined TTIG.
Now, on the other side of the country, Bay Area Court Interpreters are expressing interest in joining forces with TTIG members, and have shown their determination by staging several work stoppages, according to Eric Geist, the TNG-CWA's director of field operations and an administrative assistant to Newspaper Guild President Linda K. Foley.
Although TTIG doesn't bargain contracts on behalf of members, the union's organizational support was considered important to certified interpreters in Massachusetts who saw their base wages for a half day of work skyrocket from $120 to $160, up to $250 for a full-day, and who now are covered under a per diem basis for expenses. Non-certified interpreters will be paid $105 for a half-day and $165 for a full-day.
Isabel Picado, one of the leaders of the effort in Massachusetts, says TTIG support was critical in their efforts at achieving justice.
Rocha says that in addition to the referral service and the belief that in unity there is strength, TTIG members appreciate some of the benefits offered by the AFL-CIO Union Privileges program - which offers group rates on health insurance, a dental plan and several other programs.
Wave of the Future
Geist of TNG-CWA says that the translators and interpreters and others who freelance or work as independent contractors represent a major challenge to the future of organized labor.
"Our challenge is to figure out how we can make their jobs and working conditions better, although we can't bargain for them in a true sense," Geist says.
An important piece of the puzzle, he notes, is the dictum that "when any worker does better, we all do better."
Roth adds, "We're a new creature, as far as traditional unions are concerned, and we all need to learn how to learn from this opportunity."
Robertson said she believes that "all contingent workers have more or less the same problems - pay and working conditions."
As an interpreter, Rocha says working conditions can be especially important - cramped spaces, poor audio equipment and loud background noises can make a sunny day turn dingy.
"I had one job where the feedback from the audio equipment was so awful that I heard a buzzing in my head for three days afterward," Rocha recalls. Because of the intensity of the work, most interpreters work 30 minutes, followed by a 30-minute break, Rocha says.
Meanwhile, Roth, whose specialty is as a Spanish translator, says he has been presented with work where an earlier translation was so shoddy that he couldn't even understand which language it was written in.
Professional interpreters and translators have belonged to various management-oriented associations over the years, but the first group that sees itself as a union dedicated to serving its members is The Translators and Interpreters Guild, an affiliate of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.
(Wondering about the difference between a translator and interpreter? Translators convert written words from one language to another, while interpreters convert speech. Translators envy the fact that an interpreter goes in, does a job and can leave; interpreters envy translators who they think have less time pressure to do their work.)
The TTIG, chartered as TNG-CWA Local 32100, grew out of a meeting of seven people, mostly translators, in New Orleans eight years ago, according Sally E. Robertson, a founder and former president.
They decided to approach the AFL-CIO for organizing help, she said, and one of the seven, Tom Malionek, called up a friend at the federation and was told The Newspaper Guild would be a logical home for the group.
"We're a natural fit," says TTIG President Nancy Rocha of Silver Spring, Md., an interpreter. "Plus, because we're nationwide and our members speak and write so many different languages we can quickly and efficiently fulfill any customers' needs," she noted.
Or, as TTIG's motto expresses it, "We know who speaks your language."
Today, TTIG membership stands at about 400 throughout the United States and also including Canada, Latin America and Europe, making it CWA's most geographically diverse affiliate.
Rocha and George Roth of Alexandria, Va., a translator who chairs the union's marketing committee, are busy promoting TTIG's referral service, particularly among CWA officers, staff and members. The union provides a toll-free referral number: 1-800-992-0367.
A Growing Membership
Until recently, Rocha says, most TTIG members were truly independent contractors, working alone or in small groups and without a common bond other than their union membership and the referral service.
That may be changing.
"Judicial interpreters" in Massachusetts - not court reporters, but those persons who may be called to represent a defendant whose native language is something other than English - recently joined TTIG.
Now, on the other side of the country, Bay Area Court Interpreters are expressing interest in joining forces with TTIG members, and have shown their determination by staging several work stoppages, according to Eric Geist, the TNG-CWA's director of field operations and an administrative assistant to Newspaper Guild President Linda K. Foley.
Although TTIG doesn't bargain contracts on behalf of members, the union's organizational support was considered important to certified interpreters in Massachusetts who saw their base wages for a half day of work skyrocket from $120 to $160, up to $250 for a full-day, and who now are covered under a per diem basis for expenses. Non-certified interpreters will be paid $105 for a half-day and $165 for a full-day.
Isabel Picado, one of the leaders of the effort in Massachusetts, says TTIG support was critical in their efforts at achieving justice.
Rocha says that in addition to the referral service and the belief that in unity there is strength, TTIG members appreciate some of the benefits offered by the AFL-CIO Union Privileges program - which offers group rates on health insurance, a dental plan and several other programs.
Wave of the Future
Geist of TNG-CWA says that the translators and interpreters and others who freelance or work as independent contractors represent a major challenge to the future of organized labor.
"Our challenge is to figure out how we can make their jobs and working conditions better, although we can't bargain for them in a true sense," Geist says.
An important piece of the puzzle, he notes, is the dictum that "when any worker does better, we all do better."
Roth adds, "We're a new creature, as far as traditional unions are concerned, and we all need to learn how to learn from this opportunity."
Robertson said she believes that "all contingent workers have more or less the same problems - pay and working conditions."
As an interpreter, Rocha says working conditions can be especially important - cramped spaces, poor audio equipment and loud background noises can make a sunny day turn dingy.
"I had one job where the feedback from the audio equipment was so awful that I heard a buzzing in my head for three days afterward," Rocha recalls. Because of the intensity of the work, most interpreters work 30 minutes, followed by a 30-minute break, Rocha says.
Meanwhile, Roth, whose specialty is as a Spanish translator, says he has been presented with work where an earlier translation was so shoddy that he couldn't even understand which language it was written in.