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APWU Portraits of
Women
Leaders in the Labor
Movement
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Eleanor Roosevelt: ‘One of Us’
Although she belonged to a prominent New York family and could have chosen a life of leisure, Eleanor Roosevelt was a tireless advocate for social and economic justice. Much has been written about the nation’s longest serving and most outspoken first lady, who helped launch the modern civil rights and women’s movements. But the enormous impact she had on the union movement is often overlooked, notes Brigid O’Farrell, author of She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker. [read more]
Addie L. Wyatt: Labor, Civil Rights Leader
(January
2013) Last year we bid farewell to an important advocate for justice
for working families everywhere: The Rev. Addie L. Wyatt. Though not
widely known outside Chicago, the diminutive, African-American woman
made important contributions that “helped open the way for redefining
women’s roles within the general labor movement,” notes
a tribute at the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin
Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. Born in Brookhaven
MS in 1924, Addie Cameron started working full-time in 1941
— in an era when women and people of color were routinely discriminated
against, on and off the job. [read
more]
Emma Tenayuca:
Pecan Shellers’ Strike Sparked Hispanic
Workers’ Movement
In
Depression-era south Texas, a young Mexican-American woman broke tradition
when she stood up for oppressed workers in her community and made an
important contribution to the fight for social justice. Vilified by the
conservative establishment that controlled San Antonio, she became a
beloved leader to oppressed workers in the Mexican-American community.
They called her “La Pasionaria.” Largely an unheralded figure
today, Emma Tenayuca was well known in her day as a fearless and effective
union activist at a time when it was rare for women to be accepted as
leaders. “She was a woman people attempted to write out of history,” Mexican-American
studies professor Carmen Tafolla told the National Catholic Report in
2008. Today, she said, “We’re writing her back in.” [read
more]
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Regina V. Polk: Breaking the Mold
“I only met Regina Polk once. Briefly. That’s a teamster? I thought. The beauty? The cape? The high heels? The perfect make-up? Where’s the beer belly and the donut? The scowl and the crowbar?” – Terry Spencer Hesser.... Regina V. Polk fought diligently for workers’ rights, working as a labor organizer and business agent for the Teamsters in the late 1970s and early 1980s, defying stereotypes and empowering women in a male-dominated workforce. [read more]
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The ‘Washerwomen’s
Strike’
Black Women Advance Labor’s Cause
In an Unlikely Setting: 1881 Atlanta
(January 2010) A little known yet largely successful job action waged in 1881 by black women in Atlanta is credited with helping to set the stage for a century of labor and civil rights struggles. [read more]
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Esther Peterson:
Advocate for Labor, Women, Consumers
(May 2009) Throughout her life, Esther Eggersten
Peterson was “a powerful and effective catalyst for change,” notes
a tribute to her in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Among other
achievements, she helped launch the women’s movement in the 1960s
and was considered by many to be the driving force behind the equal-pay
movement.
[read more]
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‘We Want Bread, And Roses, Too’
1912 Textile Strike Put Women in the Line of
Fire
(March 2008) Early in the 20th Century, fully half of the 80,000 people living in Lawrence, MA, labored in its textile industry. The typical workplace was dimly lit, dangerously cramped with machinery, cold in the winter, and hot in the summer. Most of the workers were female immigrants younger than 18. In the factory, they were subject to all manner of ethnic slurs and sexual harassment.... [read more]
Evelyn Dubrow: Labor’s Legendary Lobbyist
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(March 2007) For much of the last half-century, Evelyn Dubrow, a tiny and plainly-dressed woman stood tall among the giants of the lobbying business, tirelessly advocating for the garment workers she represented, and the rest of working America as well. When Dubrow arrived in Washington, requiring employers to reward women with equal pay for equal work was barely a blip on the political radar screen, and laws were structured to allow racial and gender discrimination in hiring, housing and health care. By the time she finally retired, at age 86, she had had not only helped usher in a new era in which women came to serve as leaders in every field, she had been a pivotal figure in winning passage of many laws that improved the lot of working families: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the establishment of Medicare, fair housing laws, pay equity legislation, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. [read more]
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Frances Perkins: Trailblazer for Workers’ Rights
(March 2006) In an era when few women had risen to positions of prominence, Frances Perkins in 1933 became the nation’s first female cabinet secretary. During her long tenure as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Department of Labor, she was a trailblazer for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights... Perkins was the driving force for passing important pro-worker legislation, including the Social Security Act (1935), which created unemployment insurance and income security for elderly Americans and for children whose parents die or become disabled; The Wagner Act (1935), which gave workers the right to organize; and the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), which established a national minimum wage and standards for a maximum workweek. [read more]
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Mother Jones
(March 2005) While her detractors as “the most dangerous woman in America,” struggling workers all over the nation had a more affectionate way of referring to Mary Harris Jones: They called her “Mother.” From 1871 to 1924, Mother Jones traveled far and wide to fight for decent wages and better working conditions, spreading the union gospel in in worker camps, shantytowns, tenements, union halls, and jails.... “In the miners’ cause,” a historian wrote, “she waded creeks, faced machine guns, and taunted many a mine guard to shoot an old woman if he dared.” [read more]
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Sweatshop Tragedy Ignites Fight for Workplace Safety
Women Workers Seize The Moment
(March 2004) As women unionists struggled for better wages and working conditions, a tragic fire in New York City 93 years ago captured the nation’s attention and forever changed the course of labor history. Although for most Americans the disaster remains part of a dim collective memory, the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of March 25, 1911, ushered in a new chapter of the Industrial Age in which unions led the fight for workplace safety for all Americans. ... One of the more notorious sweatshops was the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, New York’s largest manufacturer of women’s blouses. Most of the factory’s 500 workers were Jewish or Italian women in their teens and early 20s who worked excessively long hours for low pay in overcrowded, dimly lit rooms on the factory’s upper floors. [read more]
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Dolores Huerta
The Unsung Heroine of the
United Farm Workers Union
(March 2003) While most people are familiar with Cesar Chavez, relatively few know the name of Dolores Huerta, the cofounder
of the United Farm Workers Union. During the UFW’s earliest days, however, she was the one who ran the business of the fledgling organization and served as its main contract negotiator. And she’s never let up: For more than 40 years she never has been far from the union’s front lines or its back rooms. ... This year marks the 10th anniversary of her induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and she may be better known among contemporaries as a crusader for women’s rights than as a labor activist.
[read more]
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'The Rebel Girl'
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964)
“The union has been accused of pushing women to the front. This is not true. Rather, the women have not been kept in back in the union, and so they have naturally moved to the front.”
— Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [read more]
