What AFSCME means to my family
By CARA SAUNTO
THROUGHOUT MY LIFE my mother has been an active participant in her union, Local 2083, Council 2. She has held every position including president and is currently the executive vice president. Union issues have always been a topic of discussion for our family at the dinner table. I have vivid memories of long debates over contract negotiations, organizing our county’s library system, election of officers and many other topics.
Every year since I can remember, on Labor Day weekend our family would go to a local park to attend the annual Labor picnic. It was always fun for me as a kid to ride the ponies and eat hotdogs but now that I am older, I can appreciate the value of the speakers as well. My most memorable year at the picnic was in 1999 when Vice President Al Gore spoke. After his speech I was able to shake his hand. He was the first politician I shook hands with and it made me so excited I had to go brag to all my friends at school about how cool the Labor Day picnic was.
A few years later, I realized how our country’s international policies could have a profound effect on my family as shortly after September 11, 2001 my dad was laid off from Boeing. His job did not have union representation. He has never had the opportunity to participate in a union and as a result has not been able to enjoy the consistent employment that my mom has.
My mother, who has been a member of AFSCME for over thirty years, has been steadily employed at the Seattle Public Library for the entire period. The connection between union membership and secure employment has been evident many times showing the direct effect the union’s importance has had on my family.
Another way that AFSCME has impacted our lives occurred this past June when I was fortunate to accompany my mother at the afscme convention in Anaheim, ca. That really drove home the meaning of the organization. Seeing the thousands of delegates with their green shirts, hats and signs—the Green Machines!—made the organization really come alive.
I had never realized just how big and powerful AFSCME really is. As the delegates enthusiastically cheered on the speakers I could see the genuine pride they had in their union. This pride produced the mounting anticipation for everyone in the hall leading up to the introduction of the International President Gerald McEntee and the International Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy. When each made his first rousing speeches I finally understood why the delegates loved McEntee and Lucy so much.
I could feel the power of their speeches, how that made everyone in the hall feel and the motivation it gave the delegates to return to their cities and fight for their members. I was cheering right along with my mom and her union members which made me sure that I want to be in the union too.
The two other speakers that really touched me were former President William Clinton and presidential hopeful John Kerry. The sheer fact that two of the most powerful people in the world wanted to speak before the afscme members shows the importance and power the organization holds. Though I still cannot vote, listening to Kerry and especially Clinton speak made me fully realize how important national politics are and how they affect everyone, including myself.
My mom, as a self-described union activist, is always telling me that the best way to make changes in my community is to be proactive. So, following the convention last summer I distributed John Kerry bumper stickers, pins and yard signs to the students, teachers and staff at my high school. I felt that educating people concerning John Kerry’s platform was an important cause that I wanted to support.
Through all the excitement of the national convention and the amazing politicians who made appearances there, I realized that the real work gets done every month at the local union meetings. I have watched my mom fight for increased benefits for her fellow employees, ensure that there is a union representative on nearly every committee in the library and make certain that each employee’s concerns would be heard and considered by the management.
The benefits provided by my mom’s union have attracted the vast majority of her co-workers, over 400 of them. These are the types of workers who have been continuing AFSCME’s commitment to workplace justice for almost seventy years. It is once a month in places like the basements of neighborhood libraries that the small battles are being fought and won. In a very real way afscme has provided the employment security and peace of mind my family relies on.
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