Talkin' Union
Committed to strengthening the union, activists from Chicago and New York City
traveled south to work with current AFT members and recruit new ones

Last summer, AFT members from New York City and Chicago put in “extra duty” time to help strengthen the union. They traveled to Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to assist locals in those states in recruiting new members and boosting the enthusiasm of current members. These activists’ commitment to union-building underscores the basic labor movement tenet that there’s strength in numbers.

OUR PROFESSION

For Jill Williams, the opportunity to work on the AFT’s organizing project in Atlanta was almost a no-brainer.

“I realize that there are places that don’t have as strong a union as we do in New York,” explains the computer and technology teacher at PS 171 in East Harlem. “It just sounded like a wonderful opportunity to do some union service—but also in a more selfish light to learn more about the union climate in other regions, and I think I accomplished both.”

Williams teamed up with other activists, traveling to different schools and explaining how their unions had made a difference—not just on bread-and-butter issues but on district efforts to improve public education. Helping teachers understand the link between collective bargaining and their ability to have a say on professional issues will be key to Atlanta organizing, she says.

The long-term future for union-building is there in Atlanta, but it won’t happen overnight, Williams believes. She observed a strong culture of respect for authority and “going through channels” that could slow progress at first. But she also saw a lot of open-minded interest and excitement about union involvement in professional issues that can help the process along. “There were definitely people who were anxious to be involved, so I’m hopeful.”

MORE THAN JUST YOU

The worries expressed by Shreveport, La., school employees came as little surprise to Lanise Sanders, a certified school nurse from Chicago who was part of the AFT’s organizing project in the South.

“There are deep concerns about job security, and there were a lot of questions about what specifically a union can do,” reports Sanders. During her stay, Sanders was able to provide not only an explanation of how pivotal unions are to job security but also an illustration: The local AFT affiliate, the Caddo Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel, played an instrumental role in fighting a planned reduction in the district’s PSRP ranks.

“This local is a real up-and-coming group, and it has what it takes to be a force in the district,” explains Sanders, who hopes the lesson remains with the people she talked to in Shreveport. “It’s a very good feeling for me to know that there is an organization out there supporting me, representing me. There is so much more that is there [for an employee] being a part of that group.”

Sanders, who says she “comes from a long line of union members,” thinks that the shared, personal stories exchanged during the organizing project were valuable not only for the staffers in the district but also for the activists who made the commitment to join the effort. “It’s been just a wonderful learning experience for me.”

BACK HOME AGAIN

When Chicago teacher and union activist Earnestine Murphy found out that the AFT was looking for volunteers to go to Mississippi to help organize school employees, she jumped at the opportunity to get back home—and to make a contribution to strengthening the AFT’s Mississippi affiliate.

“I’m from Mississippi and I spent my first three years as a teacher in the Mississippi Delta area. So I know a lot about the region and some of the problems that educators there have,” says Murphy, adding that she has family members who teach in Mississippi schools.

Murphy, who has taught in Chicago for the past 22 years, worked as a volunteer for the Jackson (Miss.) Federation of Teachers for two weeks in early August, helping the local and its staff reach out to new teachers—and potential members—during the first few days of school. “It was a lot of long days and evenings, but I enjoyed the work and met some beautiful people.”

Once school employees in Jackson found out that Murphy was a native Mississippian who had traveled all the way from Chicago just to talk to them about the union, they began to open up to her, Murphy says. “They really appreciated the fact that I was there to help them. I’m quite sure I gave them something to think about.”

EXPANDING THE UNION

Thomas Lalagos is bothered by what he sees as the increasing efforts to “de-unionize the country” and take away the hard-earned rights of workers and their families. “There are those on the far right who would like to see the political power of unions reduced,” he says.

The only way to counter this movement is to “grow the union,” says Lalagos, who spent two weeks in Louisiana this summer doing just that. “I’ve always been interested in helping [labor] regain a larger portion of the workforce.”

Even in states like Illinois, where unions are seen as powerful and influential, the rights of workers can be tenuous, Lalagos points out. “In Chicago, we just got back some of the bargaining power that we lost in 1996, so the struggle has not ended. You have to constantly be on guard.”

Lalagos thinks his presence in Shreveport, along with the other AFT volunteer organizers, helped heighten the union’s profile. “The most important thing we did was help the union become more visible in the district’s schools,” he says.

He credits the Caddo Parish local with being a very effective advocate for the district’s school employees—despite the lack of collective bargaining rights. “The local has a dynamic president and a lot of dedicated building reps who really want to make a difference.”

‘A UNION WITH BACKBONE’

After spending time helping to recruit members for the Jefferson County AFT in Alabama, paraprofessional Evelyn Massey hopes she will be invited back. “I like meeting and talking with people, and I found it particularly exciting to talk to teachers and paras in Jefferson County about the benefits of joining the union.”

Massey, a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, spent time visiting schools, passing out fliers and meeting with individual teachers and paras during her summer visit to Jefferson County. She says she frequently came in contact with educators who feared losing their jobs if they were caught talking to a union representative, and was surprised to learn that some school employees in Alabama belong to the same union that represents administrators. “I told them that what they needed was a union with backbone—a union that would stand up to those administrators when they had a problem.”

What Massey will remember most about her stay in Jefferson County, is the responsiveness of the local’s leaders and staff. “Whenever I would tell them that I had just met with a teacher who had a problem, they would get right on it,” she recalls.

Massey even made up her own slogan based on the union’s acronym. “I’d tell teachers and paras in Alabama that AFT stands for ‘Always Finds Time for its members.’”

A CHANGE OF PACE

There was some culture shock in store for Rodrick Daley when he signed up for a two-week hitch as part of the AFT’s organizing project in Shreveport.

The common daily courtesies that are still a part of Southern life came as a pleasant surprise to the New Yorker, who teaches Spanish at IS 285 in Brooklyn. “But you miss the pace of the city—downtown was dead at 10:30 p.m. in Shreveport.”

What Daley didn’t miss was a golden opportunity, both personal and professional, to hone his skills as a union activist and organizer and to share perspectives with colleagues in a community where trade unionism is not so well understood.

In meetings and workshops with school staff, Daley found himself clearing up misperceptions about unions as strike-happy organizations. Because strikes are reported by the media, “people think they happen more than they do,” Daley says. He encouraged the school employees he met in Shreveport to look at the big picture when it comes to unions.

“I told people that unions weren’t just good, they were necessary,” Daley explains. “When you’re part of a union, you’re not just doing it for you—you’re doing it for all the people who will come after you. Just like I’m reaping the benefits won by the people who came before me in New York City.”
 

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