Women Help Other Women Gain Rights, Build Confidence Through Unions

It's one of the most familiar concerns women in union organizing hear when they talk with other women about joining a union or becoming more active: "What do I do with my kids?"

For women who work long hours and take care of a home and family, there's often no space in the day planner to attend a union meeting or help with an organizing or political campaign.

"I tell them, 'You know what, I am a mom just like you and I understand how hard it is," said Lisa Johnson-Sells, organizing coordinator for CWA Local 6086 in Oklahoma, the state workers' local. "I tell them they can bring their kids, that it's no problem, and they see my kids with me."

By winning passage of the federal Employee Free Choice Act - the focus of activities and events CWA is planning for Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day - union leaders say another barrier to organizing women will be removed. Forming a union will be as easy as collecting signed cards from a majority of workers, reducing the opportunities for management harassment and intimidation. The law would require mediation and arbitration to help settle first contracts, bringing union benefits to many workers more quickly. And it would impose stronger penalties on employers who abuse workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively.

Juggling their many obligations, especially when bosses are inflexible about scheduling and forced overtime, is an issue that women tend to be more comfortable talking about with other women, organizers say. That's why - says a foundation dedicated to bringing more women into the labor movement - it's crucial to increase the presence of women in union organizing and leadership roles. After all, women today make up nearly half the U.S. labor force.

"The union movement has too few women organizers and women leaders who can act as mentors, trainers and advisors to women who want to become organizers," according to the Berger-Marks Foundation's new report.

The report says that women can be especially good organizers because of their "broader view of workplace issues, emphasizing quality of life issues such as childcare or scheduling, rather than just focusing on wages."

The Berger-Marks Foundation was first created as a scholarship fund to honor Edna Berger, a dynamic leader and the first woman organizer for The Newspaper Guild, now TNG-CWA. Later, the foundation added the name of Berger's husband, songwriter Gerald Marks. Royalties from his catalog of music, including his most famous song, "All of Me," help fund the foundation's work supporting women as labor organizers and
union leaders.

In November 2004, 19 union women - including about a half-dozen from CWA - met in New Orleans to discuss the challenges women face as organizers and how more women could be recruited.

"After such an inspiring and informative retreat of experienced women organizers we hope our report will be instructive for the entire labor movement," said Foundation President Linda Foley, who is also president of TNG-CWA.

Toward that end, the foundation is offering grants to women organizers - recognizing how much unpaid time, energy and even their own dollars women put into organizing campaigns. Women on active campaigns can apply for aid to cover such things as lost-time wages and expenses related to their project.

The women brought a wide variety of experiences to New Orleans meeting. CWA's Marge Krueger, administrative assistant to District 13 Vice President Jim Short, said she was drawn to organizing by the difficulties of other mothers working as telephone operators.

"I went to work before daycare. I had no babysitter," Krueger said, quoted in the report. "If you wanted to work, being an operator was the job because you could work at night. When I'd go into the ladies' room, someone was always crying because they were late two minutes (and were disciplined). At first I thought I was there to talk about the union, but then I realized I was touching people's lives. You do make a difference."

Sandy Rusher, organizing coordinator for District 6, said she found that some of the women from other unions weren't as lucky as those at CWA, because their unions are still heavily dominated by men in both leadership and organizing.

That makes it tough for the women organizers themselves, and the women they're trying to bring into their unions. "It's important to have a diverse group of organizers, so people can relate to you," she said.

Rusher's 11-year-old daughter has grown up on the organizing trail and sometimes helps watch younger children who come to union meetings with their moms. At those meetings and in the office where Rusher works, children will find toys and coloring books - signals that CWA is a family-friendly union.

Johnson-See, another retreat participant, sometimes brings her teenage children to meetings and is proud that her son recently signed up a new member. She encourages women who aren't sure they have the time or energy to get involved to think about their children's future. "I ask them, 'don't you want this to be a better place for your kids than it is for you?'"

Even in 2005, she said more men than women lead companies, more men are quoted in the newspaper or interviewed on TV, and so on. In fact, she said when she visits the statehouse in Oklahoma it's not uncommon for men there to "look over and around me. They'd rather talk to male organizers who work under my supervision."

But that can change as more women reach out to each other. "We bring credibility to other women," she said. "When women see other women taking a leadership role in organizing, it makes them see that, 'I have a place in this movement. I have a voice.'"

You can find the full "Women in Organizing" report on the Berger-Marks website, www.bergermarks.org. Applications for the grants for women organizers are also online.