Many Voices, One Union

Foreign-born members put a new accent on AFSCME.

BOSTON

The American dream is alive, well and thriving in the state where the Pilgrims first set foot in the New World.

Just ask Local 1526 (Council 93) Pres. Tony Antonelli. The grandchild of Italian immigrants, Antonelli is helping a new generation of recent arrivals to experience the joys of American life.

He represents men and women raised under dictatorships in Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America and Africa, teaching them what it means to belong to a democratic union for the first time.

And like labor leaders before him, he shows the newcomers both how a union can help them overcome prejudice in the workplace, and how to win their share of the American pie.

"AFSCME members have got to know — especially those whose English isn’t fluent yet — that our union is about them and their needs and their concerns," insists Antonelli. "Just because you were born with a foreign language doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent or that somehow you don’t have union rights."

Antonelli’s unit, which represents workers in the 150-year-old Boston Public Library system, is typical of AFSCME locals throughout the country which are coping with the largest population of foreign-born adults since the 1920s. About 11 percent of today’s workforce are immigrants.

Whether they are located along the coasts, on the borders or in the heartland, AFSCME members are welcoming new Americans into their locals, and leaders like Antonelli are helping to make it happen.

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP. Antonelli believes in "face-to-face" leadership. He makes a point of walking daily through the historic main branch of the library on Copley Square, stopping to talk with as many union members as possible.

The members shelve and catalog books, clean the floors, provide clerical support, drive the trucks, and take care of America’s oldest public library and its 25 branch locations.

"I talk," says Antonelli with a smile, "and I listen."

In this 300-member unit, one in three members learned English as a second language. But Antonelli has patiently overcome barriers of communication and culture to convince foreign-born members to become involved in the local.

"It’s about finding one or two members of a language group whom you can build a relationship with," he explains. "And then they are able to reach other members of that group who may be too shy, or too withdrawn to participate."

The union president also is trying to break down the walls that develop naturally as individuals socialize with others from their own country and who speak their own language.

"No question about it," offers Antonelli, "these can be difficult and complex issues for native-born union members like us. On one hand, we respect everyone’s privacy in America: your right to associate and be friends with whomever you want. [But to be successful] a union is about including people in decisions and actions. It’s about the many, not the few."

Solidarity has been particularly important as Antonelli and local members have confronted more language bias in the workplace.

UNION PRIDE. "Where I come from," marvels Xiping Zhang, "you never had a union stand up for you."

Zhang had worked for 10 years as an English teacher at a technical college in China’s Yunan Province before coming to the United States in 1985 with her husband, as he completed doctoral studies in chemistry. The family refused to return to China after the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

Zhang supported her husband and two children by working in the library’s Microtext Department, helping library patrons to use microtext images of books and periodicals.

Despite more than 10 years in the country, Yankee ears still strain a bit when Zhang speaks, while the Boston accent, she admits, is hard for her to understand.

She believes language has been a roadblock to promotions. Recently Antonelli and the local filed grievances for Zhang and other foreign-born members who feel discriminated against be-cause of their language and national heritage.

"It makes me so proud," says a grateful Zhang. "When I know the union is behind me, I know that here at least we can talk with management. ... We are not afraid of them like in China."

COMMON PROBLEM. Such disputes over language are increasingly common in the United States. The problems have become so widespread, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now separately categorizes language complaints.

Ohio University economist Lowell Gallaway, who studies the economic impact of immigrant language skills, estimates that poor English among foreign-born residents costs the nation more than $175 billion annually in unemployment compensation and lost productivity, wages and tax revenue.

Median income for immigrants is about 30 percent below that of native-born workers. If immigrants were paid equally for the same work, he argues, federal and state tax collections could rise about $90 billion.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Liya Shtaynmets understands the problem, too. Married to a Jewish man, Shtaynmets was forced to flee anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, but fell in love with Boston and with her job in the library.

For all that, she feels "promotions are not available for foreigners. My boss is very happy with my work, but management doesn’t want to promote someone like me."

Fluent in English, German and Russian, she nevertheless speaks English with a Slavic musicality that is often difficult for Americans to understand.

Although Shtaynmets believes she has been held back in her career, she and other Local 1526 members routinely serve as translators — for no extra pay — for the library’s many patrons who do not speak English. The local recently conducted a voluntary program to translate library card applications into Russian, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

"We are all happy to do this," says Shtaynmets, "like a gift to give back to America."

MANAGEMENT’S JOB. "What I find frustrating as a local president," comments Antonelli, "is that management here wasn’t doing its job."

Instead of rewarding and encouraging members like Shtaynmets, "they acted like our people are a burden, not an asset," he complains.

And when promotions come up, management often picked a native-speaker over a foreign-born member. "Instead of letting the immigrant members know what the problem is," he charges, "they built up the credentials of the person being promoted."

The good news is that he and Council 93 Pres. Diane Fay, who works at the Copley Square main branch as a library assistant, are members of a new year-long "Change Team" created by a new administrator at the library.

Together, they will conduct worker focus groups and interview every member of Local 1526, asking what improvements can be made in the system to help people whose English is a secondary skill.

"We are hopeful," says Fay, "that by talking with members we’ll find a way for fairness for everyone."

PUBLIC NEED. "And it’s not just our library members who are affected," she adds. "We’ve got 40,000 members in Council 93 scattered across northern New England, and like many public employees all over the country, we’re seeing a workplace where more and more of the public need is addressed in languages other than English."

"For many of our members," she says, "foreign language skills in their jobs are becoming a necessity."

Many public employee jobs have changed along with America’s expanding immigrant population, she observes, adding "AFSCME simply has to change, too."

"Whether it’s serving our members, recruiting new ones, fighting for contracts and grievances, or walking a picket line, we have to learn to be a better, more diverse union because of all the languages coming into the workplace," says Fay.

No doubt in the years ahead, offers Fay, "as America’s workforce increases with foreign-born people, AFSCME at the local level is going to have to teach management these things."

"And we’re going to have to learn to fight for economic fairness for members no matter how they speak English," adds Antonelli.