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WHY SHOULD WOMENJOIN UNIONS?
ORGANIZING & LEADING WITH
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
MATERIAL PREPARED BY
BRIGID O’FARRELL
MILLS COLLEGEUAW Local 1981
BASED ON
SHE WAS ONE OF US:
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND THE AMERICAN WOKER
Cornell University Press 2010
PROJECT FUNDED BY
BERGER-MARKS FOUNDATION
1. INTRODUCTION
ARE YOU REACHING OUT TO NEW WOMEN WORKERS
TO INTEREST THEM IN JOINING THE UNION?
1. INTRODUCTION
ARE YOU REACHING OUT TO WOMEN WORKERS
TO INTEREST THEM IN JOINING THE UNION?
YES!
Union organizer, officer, member-it’s your job.
• Unions win with organizing by members
• Successful strategies develop women leaders
WORKSHOP GOALS
USING HISTORY TO HELP
• Organize women workers
• Energize women members
• Develop women leaders
SELECTED STRATEGIES FOR
ORGANIZING & LEADERSHIP
1. Highlight the importance of women’s contributions-past & present
2. Address women’s true priorities
3. Create and support formal mentoring programs
4. Provide opportunities for women to strategize together
5. Put women in leadership positions
6. Provide flexible options for involvement
7. Provide training on mobilizing women
Eleanor Roosevelt, fourteen years old, 1898
2. WHY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT?
The Roosevelt Family, 1919
WHY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT?
BECAUSE AS ONE OF THE MOST ADMIRED, VILIFIED, & INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY ER
WAS A:
Worker, Newspaper columnist and author
Union Member, The Newspaper Guild 1936-1962
Member, National Women’s Trade Union League
Advocate, for working women, unions, & civil rights
SHE BROUGHT LABOR TO HER ROLES AS:
• First Lady of the United States & the World
• Political Leader of the Democratic Party
• Delegate to the United Nations
Chair, Commission on Human Rights
• Chair, Commission on the Status of Women
• Wife, mother, daughter-in-law, grandmother, friend
CONSEQUENCES
• Death Threats
• Church Bombing
Ku Klux Klan
Texas White Citizen Council
• Column Cancelled
WHY SHOULD WOMEN JOIN UNIONS?
QUESTION
“Mrs. Roosevelt asked many questions but she was particularly interested in why I thought women should join unions...”
What do you think Rose Schneiderman told Mrs. Roosevelt in 1922?
Answer
Craft Unionism
• Poor wages
• Long hours
Social Unionism
• Health care
• Housing
• Financial assistance
• Cultural activities
• Who Was Rose Schneiderman?
STRATEGIES
• MENTORS
• COALITIONS
• LEADERS
• PRIORITIES
• COMMUNICATION
MENTOR:Rose Schneiderman, early twenties, ca. 1908
COALITIONS
National Farm Labor Committee, 1959
AFL-CIO News, 1961
Martin Luther King & Rosa Parks
NEW LEADERS
FRANCES PERKINS
Frances Perkins@1911
LEADERSHIP QUALITY AND SKILLS
• Frances Perkins
Wrote & Administered the legislation
• Rose Schneiderman
Joined the NIRA to implement the law
• Eleanor Roosevelt
Gathered Information & Educated the public
Frances Perkins, WTUL, 1936
Maida Springer, White House, 1945
International Labor Exchange, 1945
WOMEN LEADERS
Maid Springer, 1910-2004
Jessie De La Cruz, 1919-
United Farm Workers Union
Ah Quan McElrath, 1915-2004
Int. Longshore Workers Union
WOMEN’S PRIORITIES
Learn about the underlying problems
•Listen to workers
•Visit work locations
•Ask questions
•Observe conditions
• World War II
Equal pay, factory jobs, child care, meals
• The United Nations
Equal pay, discrimination
Commission on Women
• Commission on the Status of Women
Union Women & the Equal Rights Amendment
ORT Training Program, Paris, 1948
PRESIDENT’S COMMISSIONON THE STATUS
OF WOMEN
• Role of Union Women
• First Report on Minority
Women
• Gathering information
Esther Peterson, 1906-1997
OLD MEDIA
• My Day Syndicated Newspaper Column: Over 8,000
• Magazine articles: Average of 50 per year
• Speeches: Average of 50 per year
• Books: 27
• Letters: Thousands and thousands per year
• Testimony before Congress
• Speeches to Union Conventions
• Commissions & Committees
COMMUNICATION*Unions must tell their stories to the public
CIO Convention Floor, 1944
NEW MEDIA
Radio Shows,
Television Show
Web page, Facebook, Tweet, Blog
AFL-CIO Merger Convention, 1955
4. OUTREACH
WORKERS’ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Democracy in the workplace as a model for the country
Democracy in the workplace as a model for the world
DELEGATE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Chair, Commission on Human Rights
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS*
ARTICLE 23
1. Everyone has the right to work
2. Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to
equal pay for equal work
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and
favourable remuneration
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
WHO IS YOUR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
TODAY?
WHO IS YOUR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
TODAY?
Liz Shuler, IBEW
Sec.Treas., AFL-CIO
Hilda Solis,
US Sec. of Labor
Michelle Obama
First Lady of the US Hillary Clinton,
US Sec. of State
Arlene Holt Baker,
AFSCME. Exec. VP, AFL-CIORose Ann DeMoro, Ex. Dir.
National Nurses United
6. CLOSE TO HOME
• MENTORS
• LEADERS
• COALITIONS
• WOMEN’S PRIORITIES
• COMMUNICATION
• HUMAN RIGHTS
AFL-CIO Memorial Poster, 1963