AFSCME Women Share Organizing Stories at White House Forum

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/publications/34430.cfm

March 28, 2011

With a massive anti-worker offensive being waged across the country, AFSCME public service workers participated in a U.S. Department of Labor event recognizing the importance of labor unions in improving the lives and safety of workers. U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis hosted “Women Organize!” a Women’s History Month forum with women workers and organizers. The event honored the legacy of the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire, in which 146 young immigrant workers – mostly women – lost their lives in a raging sweatshop fire in New York City.

Deanna Vizi, a Genoa, Ohio, child care provider and member of AFSCME Council 8, talked about the three year fight of 3,500 providers like her to win union recognition.

“Being a union member is important to me,” says Vizi, who has provided publicly funded and subsidized child care services for the past 10 years. “Although I have a voice, many voices together are better heard.Having the support of our union gives me peace of mind, because although I work independently, I know thatI have an entire team ready and willing to support me at any time.”

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBGhw915sqk&feature=player_embedded

Vizi was joined by Latonya Johnson, a child care provider from Milwaukee since 2002 and president of Local 502 (Council 48). Johnson was one of the organizers behind the successful campaign of more than 7,000 licensed and certified child care providers throughout Wisconsin to form their union Child Care Providers Together/AFSCME.

“Child care in Wisconsin for the longest time had been an uneven power struggle. We had rules and regulations put in place without providers’ input,” Johnson said. “It made it hard for providers to do their job. People got fed up. It was time for a union.”

FULL story at link.