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From the February 2001 issue of Punchlist, a publication of the AUD Women's Project
Union Summer Lone Star Style
by Valerie Park
Working as a Union Summer intern for the month of July, I tanned my hide and sweated buckets on picket lines with IBEW Local 520 in sultry Austin, Texas. Although I thoroughly enjoyed picketing and leafleting in 105-degree heat, the highlight of my summer culminated in a meeting with women in the Local to discuss their work in the male-dominated construction trades.
The Union Summer internships, coordinated by the Organizing Department of the AFL-CIO, encourage young adults to become active in the labor movement via union organizing. My Union Summer site brought together men and women, aged 18-26, from a variety of geographical, educational, political, economic, racial, and sexual backgrounds, all previously demonstrating a commitment to social justice. Our experiences as activists led us to encourage Local 520 to actively outreach to and participate in a multitude of social justice causes that resonated within the local community and in statewide and national political arenas. (In addition to organizing with the IBEW, interns volunteered their time and energy to aid immigrant day laborers struggling to democratize Austin’s day labor site, networked with striking maquiladora workers and an Austin-based maquiladora workers’ rights advocacy organization, participated in strikes with the Screen Actors Guild, registered voters, and worked with the Austin Living Wage Coalition.)
We hoped that Local 520 would begin to focus some energy on networking and outreach. Still, Local 520’s main agenda for the Union Summer interns included picketing and leafleting non-union jobsites in an attempt to bring non-union brothers into the fold of the IBEW. But this agenda was flawed and proved to be problematic. For instance, a large percentage of Austin’s non-union construction workers were Spanish speakers and ironically, to lure these non-union workers, Local 520 used English-only leaflets. One of our first tasks, then, was to create bilingual leaflets. Furthermore, these tactics only sufficiently targeted men. Several interns, myself included, began to ask, "why is it that hardly any women are unionized members of Local 520?" We learned that of 1500 members, only 15 women were dues-paying ---1% of the union!!! We also learned that in the past twenty years approximately 30 women had been members of Local 520, but half of these women chose to leave their union.
We organized a meeting with journeywomen and female apprentices who were interested in discussing their experiences as pioneers in non-traditional work. Although they found their work rewarding and fulfilling, these tradeswomen reported isolation on the job and faced frequent sexual harassment and discrimination. They lamented the fact that they never had access to a sanitary bathroom facility. And they were sick and tired of being assigned to short-term jobs with little overtime. Furthermore, the women with children reported difficulty securing reliable childcare that worked with their schedules.
We created a resource book compiling information on tradeswomen’s organizations. We stressed that if they felt compelled to pursue recourse for the problems they encountered they could turn to many organizations across the country that specialize in providing advocacy and assistance to tradeswomen. Or perhaps these tradeswomen will take matters into their own hands and create an organization of their own to address discrimination in Austin’s construction trades.
Valerie Park volunteers with the Women’s Project, conducting research on women in non-traditional work for Operation Punch List. A graduate student of Women’s History at Sarah Lawrence College, she is currently writing her thesis on United Tradeswomen, a grassroots tradeswomen’s organization in New York City from 1979 to 1984.
From October 25 through November 11, 2001, in association with the Manhattan Theatre Source, Singularity presented The United States Project: Railways and Firework, two one-act, one-person plays. The United States Project is an ongoing series of theatrical documentaries based on interviews with the play’s subject. As writer and performer of Firework, Ellen Shanman gave a lively rendition of a day in the life of Brenda Berkman, one of New York City’s first female firefighters. The following essay by Shanman was included in the program of the performance:
"Among the scenes that didn’t make it into the show is my first meeting with Brenda Berkman. Standing outside of the Wagner Labor Archives at NYU’s Bobst Library, she explained to me in no uncertain terms that unless I dug into the Archives’ collection on the history of New York’s women firefighters, any show I did on the subject "would be meaningless." I have to confess now that I didn’t know there was a Brenda Berkman and I didn’t know there was a history.
"I was interested in doing a United States show about a firefighter because I’ve always been enthralled with the Fire Service. For obvious reasons, it just seemed to make more sense for me to profile a woman. It was only when several phone calls to various firefighting organizations resulted in chuckling or confused silence from the other end of the line that I began to realize a woman firefighter might not be so easy to find.
"I was born in 1977, the year the first group of women applied to the FDNY, so I missed the high profile struggle that followed. Among those who passed the written exam, approximately 100 moved on to attempt the Physical Abilities Exam the following year. They all failed. After lengthy discussions failed to convince the city that the test was measuring skills largely unrelated to the job, Brenda Berkman became the named class plaintiff in a suit against the FDNY. In 1982, with the judgement of the federal district court in Brooklyn behind them, approximately 40 women passed a revised test and went on to the last minute of who would proceed. Only 10 graduated on time, and Brenda, now Lt. Berkman, was among them.
"I never heard about the mistreatment, the firings and rehirings, or the further legal actions that characterized the women’s first years on the job. By the time I was old enough to be aware of it, the constant coverage had faded and the controversy had died down. The issue is by no means irrelevant today, however. There are fewer than 35 women out of approximately 12,000 firefighters on the job at present.
"Although the picture in my head has been broadened, my infatuation with the job of firefighting has only grown. It is impossible for me to show you on stage what it is like to watch these people head straight into what most of us would do anything to avoid. And they’ll tell you they have the best job in the world."
If you are interested in volunteering to be the subject of a future show, please call 212.539.7553, or contact Singularity’s website at www.singularitycompany.com
About
the Women's Project:
purpose
and scope, available support, advisory board.
Working for change an
excerpt from our Manual for Survival for Women in Nontraditional Trades.
A long journey: from filedhand
to "wireman" by Patricia Burnham-Cummings
Union Summer Lone Star Style,
by Valerie Park
Looking for a Fire Department that looks like New York,
an article by Jane Latour in the Gotham Gazette. Click
here to go to the article.
Women firefighters struggle for first rung, an
article by Seth Stern. Click
here to go to the article.
"Live! From New York: women construction workers
in their own words." an
article by Jane Latour available from AUD, call or e-mail to order. 718-564-1114
l info@uniondemocracy.org
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