If our union can mobilize and grow, our efforts to reclaim the promise of public education will become stronger, says Louisiana special education paraprofessional Robin Herrin.
Here's what AFT President Randi Weingarten had to say about Herrin and member mobilization at the PSRP conference in April. She started by presenting an award to Herrin, a member of Red River United in Shreveport who used her AFT training in CPR to revive a woman who had stopped breathing.
"Robin has done something that is incredible but is so representative of what we do," Weingarten told those attending the conference.
Herrin's quieter heroics, Weingarten added, include helping her union organize members in a state where it's tough to organize. Like so many states in the South, Louisiana has a so-called right-to-work law, in which employees aren't required to pay their fair share for union representation. Herrin's deep involvement in her union shows that "we have the tools, and we have the courage and the confidence," to help our union grow.
Herrin hadn't known anything about unions until she went to a meeting about five years ago and thought, "I might like this."
Well, she sure did like it. She became a building rep at her school, helps organize PSRP conferences and has traveled to the state capital to stand up for education. Now she's vice president of PSRPs for Red River United.
Before her union work kicked in, Herrin had been super active in Mardi Gras, planning balls and riding on floats.
"I gave up some of those real fun things so that I could do something that was still fun but more worthwhile," she says, adding that when she retires in a few years, she wants to leave a legacy for students: "I want things to be better."
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