Labor Research Review, Volume 1, Number 11 (1988)
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Labor Research Review, Volume 1, Number 11 (1988)
Feminizing Unions
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Item Labor BookshelfMetzgar, Jack (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] Steel and auto. These are the basics of American basic industry, and the United Steelworkers and United Autoworkers, representing workers in these industries, have been at the very core of the American labor movement. For most of the years since World War II, the membership of these two unions has constituted something like one -seventh of the organized workforce, and the USW and UAW pioneered many of the innovations in collective bargaining that all unions now take for granted.Item Women Miners' Fight for Parental LeaveTotten, Cosby; Totten, Goldie; Rostan, June (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] In the late 1970s, for the first time in our nation's history, coal miners started getting pregnant. In many cases, the mother had spent years fighting to get her coal mining job, fought against sexual harassment and discrimination in the mines, and worked hard to prove her competence and gain acceptance as a miner. For some, pregnancy forced them to quit their jobs, give up their seniority and lose their health insurance just when they needed it most. For others, pregnancy meant worries about the potential effects of mining on the fetus. In response to this problem and to the dramatic need of their union brothers, a small band of women miners—constituting less than 2% of the United Mine Workers of America— developed a campaign for parental leave as a formal employee benefit. At a minimum, parental leave would allow mothers and fathers to safeguard their jobs and insurance coverage while taking adequate time off to safely bring children into the world and to care for them during serious illnesses. The women miners have focused their campaign on two fronts simultaneously — building support for a parental leave clause in the UMWA contract and for federal legislation that would affect all working parents. Both approaches build on each other and connect with the efforts of women in other unions as momentum is gathering for a new approach to the relationship of family and work.Item Item Black Women in the Labor Movement: Interviews with Clara Day & Johnnie Jackson(1988-04-01)[Excerpt] Labor unions, like all other institutions in our society, have participated in the racial and sexual discrimination which has made life so difficult for blacks and women. Yet black women are among the strongest and most consistent supporters of collective action through unions.Item Blood and Justice: Red Cross Nurses on StrikeConrow, Teresa (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] For 10 days in April 1987 the nurses who draw blood at Red Cross blood centers in Los Angeles and Orange counties were on strike. Try to picture their situation: These were 225 workers who are spread out at 30 different worksites covering 9,000 square miles. To conduct a membership meeting required strikers to drive as much as two hours. Besides being geographically dispersed, the workforce is divided between Registered Nurses (RNs) and Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs), whose status and salaries were grossly disproportionate. And who were they on strike against? Not arrogant, greedy corporations like GE and USX, whose only purpose in life is to make more money this year than last? No, they were on strike against the Red Cross — an international symbol of nonpartisan humanitarianism. And the key to the strike was to dry up Red Cross' blood supply, upon which 200 hospitals depend. How easy could it be for editorial cartoonists to depict the nurses as vampires sucking the blood out of Los Angeles! Any labor leader in her right mind would understand immediately that this was a strike that could not be won. But it was won, and the sisterhood that made it possible should be an inspiration to a labor movement that is struggling to renew itself.Item Pioneering Women's Committee Struggles with Hard TimesBrown, Alex; Sheridan, Laurie (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] The Women's Committee of IUE Local 201, established informally in 1976 and officially in 1978, is one of the oldest and longest-lived union women's committees in the country. It took root and thrived within a large and overwhelmingly male General Electric manufacturing complex in the Greater Boston area and within one of the oldest, most democratic and most progressive union locals in the labor movement. For the past 11 years, the Committee has battled an extremely insensitive and recalcitrant GE management over a wide range of issues — winning substantial victories for training and entry of women into skilled jobs, for comparable worth wage adjustments in traditional jobs, and for pregnancy disability benefits and parental leave. Committee members have counseled hundreds of women and spearheaded fights for individual grievances on pregnancy disability, sexual harassment and discrimination. Within the local, the Committee's activities have created a more positive climate for women to become stewards and committee members and to run for offices on the Policy Board. Most of the Committee leaders and many of the active members are a key part of the progressive wing within Local 201. But the local now faces massive layoffs triggered by GE's transfer of work to other plants in the U.S. and abroad. The cuts began in June 1987 and are expected to reach 3,000 or 4,000 members by the middle of 1989. With its ranks being cut in half, Local 201 membership is understandably uneasy about its future, and many of the Women's Committee's past accomplishments are now in jeopardy. As preparations begin for the national GE contract, which expires in June, GE is pushing for major concessions as the price to pay for job security. The progressive movement is faced with the dual tasks of opposing concessions and pushing to save jobs. In this context, the Women's Committee's challenge is to push ahead with its agenda in a very difficult political climate. As 1988 begins, both Local 201 and its Women's Committee are in rapid transition.Item Hanging In, Solo (So What's It Like To Be the Only Female on the Job?)Eisenberg, Susan (1988-04-01)A poem.Item Window on the North: Women's Issues & Labour in CanadaStinson, Jane (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] Canadian trade union women have witnessed important developments over the past few years. Gains are being made on issues of concern to us, such as pay equity, child care and paid leave of absence for family-related illness. These issues are being addressed more frequently at the bargaining table and through legislation.Item Asian Immigrant Women & HERE Local 2Lee, Patricia (1988-04-01)[Excerpt] This article tells the story of a local union and a community group who, in pursuit of multinational and multiracial solidarity within their own organizations, have coalesced to help immigrants defend themselves against the exploitation they inevitably face in the workplace. In both cases, women provided the leadership that made these efforts possible, efforts that may harbinger a broader view of working class solidarity in the American labor movement.Item