Young Katie Shannon Joins the Fight for Worker Rights

Katie Shannon, though very young, is union to the bone. Her mom and dad are longtime union members. In fact, so is every relative she could think of – grandparents, uncles and aunts.

"My dad's entire side of the family worked in the union, for CWA, and some of them still do," Katie said.

Katie Shannon, almost 3 years old at the 1995 Labor Day Parade in New York City with dad, CWA Local 1105 Vice President Robert Shannon.

So you can imagine the poor girl's confusion when confronted by an uncle who did not have health insurance.

"I was like, what do you mean? That doesn't make sense," she said. "Union was all I knew. I didn't even know people weren't in unions until he told me he didn't get benefits."

Katie Shannon is a young woman now, a recent graduate from Buffalo State College, and she is working at CWA headquarters in Washington, D.C., as an intern in the Legislative Department. She is involved in the fight to help ensure that generations to come will have access to the security that she has known all her life growing up in a CWA union household.

Even before knowing what it meant, she remembers being surrounded by CWA, from its notepads that she did homework on, to the huge CWA 1105 blankets that she slept on. She became exposed to other unions too when she worked in high school as cashier at the local A&P grocery store chain during winter break and summer holidays. It reinforced for her the importance of the security that she might have otherwise taken for granted.

"I like working for people's rights," she said. "It's the right thing to do. Everyone should have the rights and protections that being a union member gives you. I would like to stay in a union."

2014 Mother's Day photo with Grandma Jean Shannon, who was an AT&T operator and union member. So was her husband, John Shannon, a veteran of the Great War who died in 1973. Also in the photo, Aunt Margaret Scandora, who was a union worker with AT&T, with her daughter, Gina Scandora, 14. Also in the photo is Heather, 17, and Bobby Shannon, 15, a sophomore in high school.

Childhood home life, she remembers, was centered on 'Buy American.'

"My parents always bought me clothing that was American made. I remember I wanted this sweatshirt from Limited II and my dad said I couldn't have it," she said, wistfully, but she also understood, at least now, what her father was talking about.

She remembers her dad always on the phone trying to help workers with problems and all the union members who came to their house. They would always speak so highly of being union members. Then, there were the union rallies, which she has attended all her life.

Her mom, Colleen Shannon, was CWA Local 1105's secretary until Katie's birth 21 years ago. Her dad, Robert Shannon, currently vice president of CWA Local 1105 in New York City, is very proud his oldest child is working for the union for which he has devoted 35 years of his working life.

"Now that she's an adult, she sees that the fight is still going on," the Mr. Shannon said. "She is seeing such a broad area. She sees that not only is CWA fighting for current members and organizing new members, but we are also taking care of retirees, too."