Spotlight on Activists
‘Stand up for what you believe in’
"These sisters know what it takes to win," declared Pres. Gerald W. McEntee as three female activists received a rousing ovation at last fall’s AFSCME Eastern Women’s Conference.
Pat Harris, chief shop steward of Local 626 (Council 26), has been cleaning the offices of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for 14 years. But when she learned that custodians (all women) were earning a dollar an hour less than laborers (all men) for doing essentially the same work, she was outraged. Harris got her local to sue Congress for discrimination, and last November, the historic case was settled. Now the custodians’ wages have been raised to the level of the laborers’. Despite legal delays, the 62-year-old grandmother never thought of quitting. "I don’t want my children’s kids ever to go through something like this."
Annette Gonzalez is president of Local 3234, which is part of the Servidores Públicos Unidos, AFSCME’s affiliate in Puerto Rico. In 1996, SPU initiated an effort to organize a union and negotiate contracts. With Gonzalez playing a strong leadership role in the affiliate’s back-to-back victories, more than 15,000 workers are now organized on the island. Says Gonzalez, a family services technical assistant who has been energized by the experience: "In Puerto Rico, women’s ideas are given less value. It’s time women played more of a direct role in winning the rights of all workers."
Janet Bewley, a state of Kentucky social services worker for the past 16 years, was elated when employees won the right to bargain collectively, and she played a key role in AFSCME’s subsequent election victories on behalf of social services and corrections workers. The effort reminded her of her protests against the Vietnam war.
"As a single mom with two kids, I have always taught my children to stand up for what they believe in, even if they are the only ones standing," she says. "And I know that individual workers don’t have the power to change things."
— Jon Melegrito
