Activists Bring Politics Home

AFSCME has been at the forefront of labor’s recent efforts to use political clout to support a worker agenda. Following are three union activists who’ve joined the ranks of elected officials in an effort to advance that agenda.

New Jersey

Bridging Gaps

Carol Barrett, president of AFSCME Local 3440 in Middlesex County and treasurer of Council 73 in Trenton, was elected to the South Brunswick Township Council last November 1998. She works for the Department of Public Property as data processing coordinator and has been employed with the Middlesex County government since 1965. “I always listened to the AFSCME leadership who say that you have to get involved, and the only way to change things is to get involved,” says Barrett of her race for a council seat.

She says too many people in her township — “especially politicians” — don’t understand working people and their unions. That motivated her to get involved and help change that mindset. “Some politicians view the union as the enemy when we don’t have to be,” states Barrett, who doubles as vice chair of the County Unions Representing Employees of Middlesex County, and as board member of the Greater Raritan Workforce Investment Board. Working together, she adds, unions and politicians can reach a common goal: better working conditions for employees which, in turn, benefit county services because workers are more productive.

Her election was a roller coaster of emotions. Preliminary numbers suggested she was losing, but they were re-calculated and she appeared to be winning. The “legitimate numbers” came in hours later and she lost. “I went home that night thinking that I had lost by four or five votes,” she remembers. “The next day I got a call and they said, ‘We did the absentee ballots and now you only lost by two.’ I said, ‘Well, I still lost.’”

Election officials called her back again and said the paper ballots hadn’t been counted yet. When those numbers were confirmed, Barrett found that she had squeaked out a win by five votes. Instead of celebrating, Barrett demanded a recount because she didn’t want her opponent “to ever think that something was wrong. It was touch-and-go for over two weeks.

“I only have a two-year term and I’m going to run again, because now that I’m involved I see that there’s a lot that needs to be done,” Barrett adds.

California

Schooling the Community

Gary Miller, a member of the Robla Elementary School Board in Sacramento, Calif., says his full-time job as an employment placement specialist in the city’s employment and training agency prompted his desire to hold elective office.

Too many times, he says, high school dropouts with limited skills came into his office because they couldn’t find jobs. Or, he’d see college graduates who couldn’t write a decent resume. “I got very frustrated seeing those types of people coming into our office on a regular basis,” Miller recalls, “so I felt that I wanted to do what I could to make sure that we provide a good education for the children in the community.” He’s been on the school board since 1987.

Miller, president of Local 146 (Council 57), has been a political and union activist for more than 30 years. He started in politics in 1964 campaigning for Lyndon Johnson in his presidential race against Barry Goldwater. Miller was in high school at the time and was considering which party and president to support. “But when Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that was very important to me,” he says. “So I campaigned for Lyndon Johnson.” A party loyalist, he’s also served as a delegate to the National Democratic Party convention in 1992, county chairman for the Sacramento Democratic Party from 1981 to 1988 and member of the Sacramento County Human Rights Commission from 1978 to 1988.

Miller organized the employees of the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency to join AFSCME in 1989, and currently he’s a delegate to the Sacramento Central Labor Council.

After being elected to the school board in 1987, Miller successfully ran again in 1992 and 1996. He says the “religious right” was his most vocal opposition in each campaign. “Because I’m out front as a gay man, they make an issue of that in every election,” Miller states. “What is so wonderful about my community is that the people only want to know, ‘Is Gary Miller doing the type of job that he was voted in for? Is he educating the children? Is he providing a good work environment for our staff?’ It’s those types of issues the majority of the people are concerned about, and they wouldn’t have voted for me if they didn’t think I was doing a good job.”

Wisconsin

Political Experience Pays Dividends

Sarah Waukau, a member of AFSCME Local 36A (Council 40) and former benefits specialist for the Department of Aging in Langlade County, served on the city council for more than six years in her hometown of Antigo, Wis., before running for the state legislature. She won the assembly seat through a special election. “The campaign was some of the hardest work I’ve ever done,” explains Waukau. “Because it was a special election, I only had six weeks to get the job done. I had to learn my issues quickly and work every day of the week — absolutely no days off. I ran on a platform of helping working families, improving educational opportunities and protecting our seniors.”

Since her election to the assembly in April, Waukau has worked to introduce budget amendments that give pay raises to personal care workers. She also sought to provide more support for elderly citizens, and her caucus introduced a number of “family-friendly” labor amendments which protect the rights of organized labor in Wisconsin. None of the measures passed this time around but Waukau is determined to continue fighting.

Waukau, a single mother with two children, says she’s finding her “comfort zone” in the assembly as a freshman legislator and has already laid the ground work for the next election. As a Democrat, she occupies a seat that was held by Republicans for 27 years. “I do not like the direction the legislature is heading, and I am going to work my hardest to see that a Democratic majority is elected so that we can put an agenda in place that invests in workers and puts working families first,” she proclaims. “Now that I have been elected, I feel that I will be able to bring a special perspective to legislative matters that are of concern to public employees and union members throughout the state.”

Get Involved. Miller says union activists considering a run for political office should take small steps at first.

“I would encourage people to get involved in somebody else’s campaign to understand the dynamics of it, and get to know how a campaign is run on a day-to-day basis,” he suggests. “The more you do that, then think about running for city council or school board.”

Barrett asserts that union activists have what it takes to become political leaders because the nature of their union activities means they care about people. “If you stay at home and complain about taxes or complain about this or that, then nothing gets done,” she says. “It’s so important that you let people know how you feel because you can change things. You can change people’s attitude toward the union.”

By Jimmie Turner