Essentially, a union is a group of workers who get together so they can use their collective power to bargain a contract with their employer over pay, benefits and other working conditions.
What is your role in the union?
My main role as an organizer is to help workers become a union, win contracts and help the workers enforce the contract when it is won.
How did you get involved?
I worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) right after college. There had been a union at the MOMA for almost 20 years before I started working there, and when I took the job I honestly didn't think about the union aspect of it at all.
During my time there, the MOMA union was in negotiations, and one of the people in my office was active in the union. He filled us in on what was going on and I became more interested in it. When negotiations weren't getting us where we needed to be (the MOMA was trying to cut our health benefits and do other crummy things), we voted to go on strike in the spring of 2000.
I hadn't been involved in the union at all before that, but I thought it was the right thing to do, and all the union members in my office agreed to participate in the strike together, so that made me feel a lot more secure in my decision to walk out.
We were out for five months, but it was totally worth it because we won an awesome contract. After the strike, I went back to my job for a few months, but I really felt more at home on the picket line than I ever had at the museum. So when the union president offered to hire me as an organizer it was a pretty easy decision to make.
Tell us about some things you've helped to accomplish for workers.
Our union has had a really big impact, particularly at universities. We organized the first union for graduate assistants (grad students who work as teachers and researchers at the university while they are getting their degrees) at NYU, and they won an average pay increase of 40%! Plus, health care coverage and things like overtime pay. Before they had a contract, they were really being taken advantage of. Now, they are on strike to get a second contract.
How have your personal beliefs affected your job?
It's more like my job has affected my personal beliefs! Before I got involved with the union, I didn't really think about these big workplace issues that much. Now, I really see how the fact that fewer and fewer workers have unions has had a big impact on our country as a whole. If more people had unions, the gap between the richest and poorest Americans would certainly not be as wide as it is.
What is the hardest part of your job?
The hardest part is convincing workers that the risks they take to get a union are worth it. A lot of people get fired for organizing their workplaces, and the law in the US doesn't really protect people from that. It is hard to help people stay brave in the face of that.
The best part is when the job is successful! It is totally rewarding to help people take some control over their working lives and I think it makes people much more confident and strong, generally, when they do.
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