DOUG COOK was relaxing in the pool at the Paris Hotel, the site of the 2002 AFSCME International Convention, which he was attending as a representative of Local 618-t (the Thurston County Roads Department). He swam up to a woman sitting at the side of the pool and they struck up a conversation.
“As luck would have it, Cindy also was a convention attendee,” recalls Doug. She was president of a local in Erie, Penn., for which she had served as an officer for 20 years and, like Doug, was single.
Before long they found they had much in common, with union activities among them.
“The entire week we had a great time, seeing each other every once in a while,” says Doug.
After the convention adjourned an
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d it was time for Doug to head home, they exchanged telephone numbers and said their goodbyes. “I stayed there for a few more days and he called me at the hotel,” Cindy recalls. “Then I knew our friendship was real.”
Three months later they arranged to meet in Las Vegas, where they vacationed together. By Thanksgiving, Doug was in Erie, meeting her family. Cindy remembers the fun they had. “We had a blast and my family loved him.”
They met in Las Vegas three times that year.
As the friendship grew, and because both loved the warm weather, the couple considered finding employment in Las Vegas — “because there was no way I was going to live in the state of Washington,” says Cindy. In 2003, they spent the month of July in Las Vegas, but decided the cost of living was getting out of control.
Over the next two-and-a-half years they met every six to eight weeks in either Washington or Pennsylvania.
In 2004 they were back together for the next AFSCME convention in Anaheim, Calif. For the next three years, during her visits to Washington, Cindy helped Doug host his Local hospitality night at the legislative weekend in Olympia. The hosting provided Cindy the opportunity to meet new afscme members in Washington.
In late 2005, after a year filled with anxiety as she tried to make up her mind, Cindy relented. She would move to Washington State to be with Doug. After working for the City of Erie, Penn. for 29 years, she was not only giving up her job, but also leaving her family.
In late December 2005, she began working at the Washington State Department of Ecology and is now a member of Council 28.
She has no regrets. “It has been the best move we both could have made,” says Cindy. “It has worked so well.”
On February 19, 2006, they were married — in Las Vegas, of course.
They plan to attend the next AFSCME convention. After all, that union was a source of their union.
