Spotlight on VMOs

They Came, Saw and Helped Conquer

When Virginia Yates and Lawrence Cutler — both retired social service workers — went to Kentucky in December, it marked the first time AFSCME called on retirees to work on an organizing project.

As volunteer organizers, Yates and Cutler aimed to make a difference, and they did. When they saw what the state social service workers were up against, both retirees rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Result: a majority of the 5,000 employees voted to form a union with AFSCME.

Victory didn't come easy. Like their younger counterparts, Yates, 71, and Cutler, 69, spent many hours making house calls and driving hundreds of miles to visit worksites across the state. Yates was in Madisonville for 10 days covering the western region; Cutler, in Covington for three weeks plying the northern part.

Off to KY

Yates lives in Centralia, Ill. She had been Christmas shopping for her four grandchildren and three great grandchildren when she was asked to help. Two days later, she hit the road, and drove 200 miles to Kentucky campaign headquarters. That same afternoon, she was urging people on her list to vote for the union.

"It brought me back to my early days as a mental health worker, 27 years ago," Yates says of her experience. "I was in the same position as these workers — always worried about getting fired. But once I joined a union, I had more peace of mind. That's why I was elated by the final vote in Kentucky."

Yates, who retired in 1991, served as president of Local 401 (Council 31) for 12 years. Since then, she has kept herself busy traveling, sewing and running a retiree subchapter.

Lawrence Cutler also presides over a retiree chapter — in New York City. Until his retirement 10 years ago as a child-support enforcement supervisor, he served for 25 years as a shop steward in Local 371 (DC 37).

'67 revisited

"Kentucky is virgin territory as far as unionizing people is concerned," he observes. "That's what drew me there: the struggle of child-support workers for dignity and self-respect. It's the same issue that we organized a strike around in 1967. When push comes to shove, you don't get anything from the bosses. That's why it's a tremendous injustice not to have a union."

A one-time schoolteacher, a second baseman for the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates (until he broke his ankle), and an anti-war activist in the 1960s, Cutler's optimism and enthusiasm rubbed off on younger organizers and volunteers. Even his wife, Darlene, was impressed:

"I was upset when Larry told me he was going to be gone for three weeks. But he called me every day, sounding really excited. When he came back from Kentucky, he looked like he'd completed something that was very satisfying."

— Jon Melegrito