Stepping Up In the Union
I was lucky enough to be born in a family that knew unions. Hearing about unions and being active in a union are two different things.
My daughter is the oldest of my two children. Before she went to kindergarten in 1986, I worked half-time during the swing shift from 4:30 to 11:30 PM, Monday to Friday, at a manufacturing plant in Eden Prairie. The plant was Birchwood Labs, and made medical products and produced other sizes of swabs, ultrasound gel, special medical dyes, medical sterile wipes, gun oil, and easter egg dye.
It was a great place to work. We wore lab coats, hairnets, paper booties and sometimes gloves. Almost every shift I started on the swab machine. It was boring and loud, but easy and I got to sit down. After dinner break, other lines opened. Some of the products were seasonal, like the Easter egg dye. The other workers were mostly fun young college students. And there was only one boss on our shift! Best of all, I was scheduled every other day for the full eight hours instead of every day for four hours. That meant I was home three evenings one week and home 2 evenings the next week every two week pay period. Nice for someone with little children. I only needed child care in the evening until their dad got home from work.
When my daughter started kindergarten, working at a school seemed like a great way to be home on all the non-school days, and keep more child friendly hours. I got a job as a playground monitor at an elementary school only a mile from my home. I worked two hours a school day. I loved playing with the kids and was much less punitive than the other playground monitor. Also, being outside is something I enjoy.
I also did substitute custodian work on the after school shift, which was from 4 PM to 9:30 or 10, I think. The custodian job was pretty terrible, but it allowed me to check out most of the schools in the district.
At the end of the school year, I was offered a great job at the school where I worked as a playground monitor. The next school year I became the Library para-educator–a full-time union position on school days, plus four days before school started in the fall, and five days beyond the students' days in the summer. It was considered a full time job by the school district, but didn’t qualify as full time, because it was not enough hours a year to earn unemployment money.
I joined the union right away. All para-educators in the school district were covered by SEIU Local 284. I had been in a few jobs that were covered by unions and had a pretty good idea what a union was from hearing coworkers talk about them.
Later that year I found out who my steward was. A union steward is an elected worker in the bargaining unit who represents the union at the job. Stewards might convey information from the union to the workers, represent workers if they are being disciplined, ask workers to attend union meetings or file grievances when a worker was messed with by the bosses. A bargaining unit is a group of workers who bargain for contracts that set the wages and conditions of their jobs. My bargaining unit contained all the para educators . Other bargaining units in the district were teachers and custodians. My union steward was named Lou, and she worked at one of the two Junior High schools as a hall and bus monitor.. She contacted me (another task of stewards) after I had been working a few months.
Lou and I had a brief meeting after school one day. She welcomed me and asked me to come to a union meeting. I did not go the first time she asked, but I did start going to SEIU Local 284 meetings a couple of times every year. I think the meetings took place once a month. They meant a half-hour drive from where I lived, and my little children kept me busy, so I didn’t attend every month. The meetings were lackluster and very few people attended. Sometimes there were fewer than 50 workers at the meeting out of thousands of members.
I felt more confident when we bargained for the next contract. The Para-educators Bargaining Committee and the bosses had many meetings, usually meeting every two weeks. One member of our committee was a long-time bargainer and had been a steward. He also was on the Health Insurance Committee. Who knew?
It turns out management had committees to discuss district policies. Committees for health insurance, curriculum, technology and a few others met three or four times during the school year to review and manage these aspects of the District. Custodians, para-educators and clerical workers were invited to the Health insurance meetings. HR, the assistant superintendent, head of curriculum, some other department heads and a few teachers were also present. Only the teachers, paras and custodians were represented by unions. I had no idea during this contract negotiation that one of my co-workers met with the bosses in this committee! I now see how it could make a worker feel like part of management, and change how they acted when we bargained.
In a few bargaining sessions, almost all we talked about was the school district’s funds and budgets! The bosses and the para bargaining member who had been on the bosses’ health care committee spent hours trying to find a way to pay for the wage increases we were asking for in the district budget. I did not see how worrying about the school district’s money was a problem that union workers had to solve.
After one negotiation where the entire meeting had been spent with the union member who was on the bosses’ committee, with the steward trying to assist the bosses on how to split up the tiny amount of money they were willing to spend, everyone in the room was tense. Almost two hours had gone by and nothing had changed. And the bosses had let slip that they couldn’t give us a larger percent raise than the teachers.
Feeling angry and frustrated, I walked to the white board and wrote “$10,000.00.” Then I turned back to the table and said, pointing to the bosses side of the table, “If the three people on that side of the table cut their salary by this much, we could probably have the wages we asked for.” The assistant superintendent’s lips kind of quivered and his hand came down on the table pretty hard. All three bosses stood up. The HR person said “caucus.” They walked out of the room. Bargaining was over for the day.
I was still standing by the white board. The bargaining team looked stunned. The union staffer lit into me. He told me I was out of order, not a team player and plenty more. I was ashamed and humiliated. I apologized and almost cried. Negotiations were over for the day. In retrospect, and with years more experience in union organizing and bargaining, I know that he was wrong, and was bullying me into supporting a position more favorable to the bosses.
A few weeks later we had another bargaining session. I don’t think I said a word. For that contract we, once again, got what management was willing to give. The contract was voted on and passed.
Of all the lessons I learned from that second bargaining session, the one that eventually appeared most important was that workers don’t have power alone. Even in their union.
So during the three years of that contract, I got more involved in my union. I reached out to a member of the bargaining committee. Had coffee with her and we went to some SEIU trainings together. I attended more union meetings too. And maybe, most importantly, I discussed unions with my brother.
For the next contract negotiation, I had an ally on the committee. It was a start.
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