Cherie L'Heureux, right, with WAC head Lois Clement
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L'Heureux honored with Hersey award
WHEN EMPLOYEES at the Northshore Utility District believed they were being unfairly treated by management, fellow worker and warehouse inventory controller Cherie L’Heureux was among the first to step up and act on their behalf.
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The 2009 Hersey Award has been given by the Women’s Action Committee (wac) to Cherie L’Heureux for her leadership in fighting for employees’ rights. Here is her story.
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Over months, she — working with other union members, including Council 2’s Deputy Director Pat Thompson — took up the causes with management.
In a typical case, they fought for nine months before the union won the argument and management was forced to give an employee her job back.
But — L’Heureux was to learn the hard way — management also had not forgotten the role that she had played in fighting for the rights of her co-workers. Indeed, she says, management had been pressuring her for some time.
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The Hersey Award is given every two years at the biennial convention in honor of Mary Hersey, former president of the guild at the Yakima Herald Republic newspaper.
After being fired for union activism, she successfully sued her employer. She was reinstated but quit her job the same day. Hired by Council 2 as a staff member in 1972, she became the Women’s Committee Advisor in 1980.
She retired in 1992 and was presented with the first “Mary Hersey Award” shortly before she died in 1997.
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“When I was elected secretary of Local 1024 in 2006 and took part in negotiations, that’s when the pressure started to come down on me,” L’Heureux recalls. “It became apparent that all my actions were being watched. They wanted me to slip up.
“They examined my entry of the crew’s timesheets, searching for the smallest errors. On June 13, 2008 — yes it was Friday, the 13th — they fired me, saying they had found 13 errors and/or unauthorized changes to timesheets out of about 13,000 data entries. It is not easy to find another job in this economy. They tried to financially devastate me.”
“She paid the ultimate price,” Thompson says. ”She is an inspiration to all of us in the union.”
Council 2 filed an unfair labor charge against the Northshore Utility District, calling for the district to order that L’Heureux be reinstated and receive back pay and benefits.
The hearing went well, but the decision is months away.
