Activists Front and Center: 5 New Faces

By Jon Melegrito

All across the country, AFSCME members are taking action like never before — to build power in the workplace and strengthen their local unions and councils. By mobilizing their co-workers, new AFSCME activists are leading campaigns to bargain better contracts, organize successfully and make politics work for working people. Here are portraits of five especially outstanding leaders.

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

"I used to just walk up to my supervisor when I didn't like something," recalls LaKesha Harrison, "but I never knew you could round up 30 of your co-workers and do the same thing with better results."

Threatened with a lay-off, Harrison and her colleagues at UCLA's Santa Monica Hospital did just that. They marched to the supervisor's office and challenged a move to shut down operations on her floor. They won. "That experience," she says, "pulled me into activism."

In the following months, Harrison — a licensed vocational nurse — drove hundreds of miles to recruit co-workers to get active and form member action teams (MATs) at three different University of California campuses. As a result, Local 3299, of which she is the president, now has several MATs. The MAT program was an essential element of a successful UC Contract Campaign that won across-the-board raises for 15,000 employees in 2001, and increased the union's membership by a staggering 350 percent.

Harrison asserted her leadership in another important campus fight: the university's attempt to contract out the laundry department. "When I learned that full-time workers were going to get fired, we mobilized our MATs and held one rally after another. UCLA was forced to retain those workers by retraining them for other positions."

Harrison's activist efforts are just beginning: "There are still a lot of worksites on campus that are contracted out, with lots of non-union, low-wage employees. We will help these workers organize."

In her view, building MATs and workplace power is "the most important thing we've ever done — empowering our members and training them to become leaders. Nothing is more rewarding than to see your co-workers move up and lead our fights."

BALTIMORE

Will Hugs was already stirring things up as a high school kid in Baltimore City. "I felt that young people weren't being listened to," he recalls. "So I reached out to other students in the area." His organizing efforts led to the formation of Students for Social Responsibility.

That was almost 20 years ago. Since then, as a member of Local 1185 (Council 92), Hugs has continued to shake things up — from heading a petition drive on behalf of library workers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst to leading a contract action team (CAT) at the recently organized Baltimore City Community College, where he now works as a training coordinator. He was elected to the bargaining team a year ago to negotiate a first contract, part of a statewide campaign that has netted election victories — for a wide variety of workers, over 6,000 in all — at 12 Maryland campuses in a 15-month period.

"It's been a challenge to recruit new members and involve them in various workplace actions," Hug says, noting the long hours he and other CAT members have spent to mobilize everyone in the union. "But it's very satisfying when they realize how vital their contribution is to the total effort."

Now Hugs is helping to get all 250 workers of his unit involved in all aspects of building the union, including the negotiating process.

FULTON, MISSOURI

When direct care worker Johnny See went to the state capitol last year to testify before the House Appro-priations Committee on Mental Health about work conditions at the Fulton State Hospital, he was amazed. "They didn't know that we weren't getting overtime pay," he recalls.

That eye-opener for the legislators was also a good start for See (Local 1810, Council 72). He then got a group of legislators to visit his facility for a day and follow workers around. The House wound up appropriating an additional $5 million. Although the Senate voted that bill down, See declares, "getting the legislators' attention was empowering." He vowed to carry on the fight.

See's wife, Teresa, is also a direct care worker and activist. "When we go on house visits to recruit more members, we do it together, as a team," she says proudly. "He gives the reasons, I provide the emotion."

Both Sees often give up their days off, weekends and sometimes family vacations to do house visits. Their efforts are part of a recent drive among AFSCME's 5,000 state patient care workers to negotiate a strong first contract. A similar process is underway among 1,100 state employees in the crafts and maintenance bargaining unit, who are now organizing for AFSCME representation.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

Shortly after Sylvia Tillman's 11-year-old daughter got hit by a school bus, Tillman quit her grocery store job and started working for the bus company, Laidlaw Transit Inc.

That was 15 years ago. Days after she took over the wheel — plying Milwaukee's roads at an average of 100 miles per day and transporting 70 or so kids — she realized how bad the situation was: Drivers were poorly paid, overworked and without medical insurance benefits.

When her co-workers started coming to her with questions about their paychecks, Tillman got active. "We'd march to management for corrective action," Tillman, a member of Local 135 (Council 48), recalls. "I started speaking out." That spurred others — who feared losing their jobs — to step forward with their own concerns.

But without a union, they were powerless to change things. Building on house visits and one-on-one meetings, Tillman and some 500 drivers won recognition from Laidlaw. She joined the bargaining committee and is now looking forward to a contract that will provide better pay and medical insurance benefits. Tillman's efforts are part of a long-term campaign in Milwaukee, where about 40 percent of bus drivers — all employed by private companies — have joined AFSCME.

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

"I am a social worker who works with medically fragile children for the state of Kentucky," said Kim Weathers when she introduced herself before the Legislative Joint Committee on Health Care one morning last fall. She proceeded to testify about the cases she handles: HIV-positive and crack cocaine babies, and other kids who are at risk of dying.

She also talked about her own two young sons, who have been clinically diagnosed with learning disabilities and need medication. Although she's insured, she says her kids are not covered "because I simply cannot afford the ever-increasing premiums." For Weathers and thousands of state employees, the cost of family coverage can be as high as $600 a month. One of her co-workers takes home $800 a month and pays $542 for her insurance. That problem, she concluded, has created a crisis for state employees and urgently needs fixing.

Weathers has been delivering her message wherever she goes — from media interviews to one-on-one meetings with co-workers. She has also mobilized them to attend rallies in Frankfort and to carry out other fight-back measures. Her efforts are part of a large organizing drive, launched two years ago after state workers won an executive order giving them collective bargaining rights. AFSCME represents three bargaining units with a total of 10,000 workers.

For Weathers, it all started a year ago when she saw a Council 62 flyer inviting workers in her office building to come to a meeting. "It charged me up just listening to stories about poor pay, heavy caseloads and the lack of job security," she recalls. "From that moment on, I did everything I could to build our union."

While her personal situation is enough to drive her activism, Weathers — who has multiple sclerosis — sees a larger picture: "Kentucky should be providing affordable health care that helps to keep employees' families safe. I'm glad we have a strong voice now."