Valarie Long Interviewed by Ann Froines (on telephone) Washington, D.C., April 23, 2006

Transcription

1 Valaie Long page 1 Valaie Long Inteviewed by Ann Foines (on telephone) Washington D.C. Apil Fist I want to veify that you do undestand that I am ecoding this inteview. I undestand. OK geat. And do you agee to make a gift of this inteview and tanscipt to the Walte Reuthe achives? I do. Then we'll stat with the questions. Why don't we stat by you telling me the stoy about how you enteed 925? What made you go to that fist discussion that fist meeting? I came to 925 when I was at the Univesity of Cincinnati Hold on I am having a little touble with this... And what yea was this? I think it was about 1986 the yea befoe 925's mege with SEIU. Had you had ealie expeiences as an office woke? I had been woking as a data enty opeato at a state office building in Ohio. My fist expeience as an oganize had been to oganize myself and my co-wokes into a union; a couple of diffeent unions wee vying fo union ights fo those people. What ole did you play in that ealy oganizing befoe 925? I was pat of a team of oganizes unde Debbie Schneide's leadeship and I was poject oganize woking to unite office wokes. They wee not po-union people to say the least....it was the Univesity of Cincinnati oganizing effot of Distict 925. Can you descibe some of you expeiences as a data enty opeato and office woke? I woked second shift. stating at 3 :30. I woked mostly fo women on the night shift who pocessed payoll (bief unintelligible section). Was pat of that expeiencing a lack of espect fo the wok you wee doing? Absolutely... we woked unde a big bueaucacy and unde a hieachy whee people didn't take you input... People who wee doing the wok who had suggestions wee vey

2 Valaie Long page 2 aely listened to. And thee was a male-female dynamic to it because the bosses wee male. What I want to do is double check that this is ecoding adequately fo me to tanscibe OK? OK we'e all set. What did you know about the women's movement? Had that been a pat of you expeience at all? Not diectly but indiectly. I'm 44 so I wasn't doing a lot of women's movement type oganizing... But you ae awae of the times that you live in... with the civil ights movement I always figued ( was bon too late fo the mach on Washington etc. I was in school then I was a young mothe. I stated oganizing when I was pegnant. Thee wee a lot of ways that the women's movement captued my imagination--sexism being a new mothe being in the wok wold you know. And watching othe people's stuggles whethe they wee single paents o not being acknowledged because they wee women. So I was awae of that type of stuff. Do you emembe any discussions in 925 about the women's movement o women's issues? Thee wee many people in 925 o woked fo 925 that wee much moe active in those stuggles. And those convesations that people would have who wee oganizing in a sense as a manifestation of the women's movement and wee tying to tansfe the powe of the women's movement into wokplace powe. So Kaen Nussbaum was vey involved in all aspects of that as a leade in 925 and Anne Hill in Ohio and Kim Cook and Debbie Schneide. They wee all vey close and vey good ole models. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions about you backgound. Gowing up did you have any knowledge o opinions about labo unions o wokes' stuggles? I gew up in Ohio in a steel town. My gandfathe was a steel woke my gandmothe was an LPN. And ace was a facto thee was a diffeence in pay in what my gandmothe got (bief unintelligible section; ace issues?). It was a vey po-union household. Did you say "ace issues" o "wage issues"? I said "ace." Being an Afican-Ameican family in the sixties and seventies thee wee issues of ace that you couldn't deny. As an Afican-Ameican family the discussions at the dinne table wee about ace. So you had political awaeness because of you own family's expeiences in the wage foce and in the community.. 2

3 Valaie Long page 3 Yeah (bief unintelligible section) thee wasn't much that happened that didn't get talked about in chuch in families at the veteans' hall that type of thing. So how would you descibe you family backgound in any tems you want to? I gew up in a middle class Afican-Ameican family that went to chuch. We wee active in ou chuch and in ou community. I'd say I came out bette than some. My gandpaents both woked my mothe and fathe woked and I was aised by an extended family not just my mothe and fathe. My gandpaents have been a stong influence in my life. Can you descibe in some detail one o possibly moe campaigns o stuggles that wee impotant to you in you wok in 925? My fist expeience was at the Univesity of Cincinnati whee I leaned the caft of being an oganize as I said befoe unde Debbie Schneide's tutelage. While I had put in a couple of yeas in CWA (Communication Wokes of Ameica) in 925 I leaned basic oganizing how to chat a wokplace how to do one-on-one meetings how to move issues how to get cade of wokes who ae oganizing fo themselves. I leaned how to listen unde Debbie's guidance. It was a tansfomative expeience fo me. Because I could see how the wokes took on the boss in a way they had neve done befoe and they stayed active in the labo movement afte that. Thee wee a lot of leades that wee developed out of that campaign and I was eally poud of the wok that we all did. I know fom talking to the othe folks that the Univesity of Cincinnati campaign was eally a long stuggle with a lot of diffeent stages. When I woked thee we took it to an election and lost. It took two moe times befoe we finally won the thing. I only woked thee fo the fist ound. It was still tansfomative and some of the folks who wee pat of the initial effot hung with it though the othe was. What ae some of the tactics you emembe best that wee chaacteistic of 925's oganizing? A lot of issue campaigns and lot of campaigns whee wokes take on the boss aound issues of univesity policy of issues of self-woth of pay equity. 925 was vey good at taking wokplace issues and moving people into action aound them. We did that with any issue that we could. Univesity of Cincinnati was a public univesity? Yeah. So when you wee campaigning fo union epesentation wee women's jobs at isk? Women and men. 3

4 Valaie Long page 4 Always subtlely so. I mean you would not be fted because you wee a union activist on pape but you could be looked ove fo pomotion you could be ostacized you could be looked down upon you know? Thee was always the subtle stuff that was had to put you fmge on but you know it was a union animus(?) Do you emembe couageous things that people did when they wee oganizing? When people stood up to the boss befoe going home to cook dinne they would come to the union office and have meetings and plan the leaflets fo ealy moning and the lunchtime activities. People wee couageous in tying to get a voice in the wokplace. It was emakable what people did and as you pointed out it was a eally long stuggle. It took yeas and many people stayed with it thoughout all those yeas. Could you say again the time you made the tansition fom membe oganize so to speak to woking fo the union? I want to make sue I get that staight. I stated with CWA aound 1984 and I was a membe activist with poject -CWA and I stayed with that fo a couple of yeas and then went to 925 in Febuay of'86. Do you emembe eceiving tainings when you became a ulltime labo oganize? We did tainings... Debbie would do tainings as pat of the campaign assessing the wokplace how to do a house visit how to do one-on-one communication. We would pobably have fomal taining monthly o so and then thee would be lage tainings of 925 staff in diffeent pats of Ohio so we would go to the libay campaign in Cleveland the Univesity of Cincinnati campaign. We got togethe as Distict staff and did tainings. Eithe heself o Kim Cook. Kim Cook and I woked togethe in Cleveland on the Blue CosslBlue Shield campaign. Kim Cook took the lead on that. In these tainings was thee any discussion about women's leadeship o women as leades?. It wasn't like a topic but all the leades wee women. Thee was a way in which you didn't have to talk about it because you wee living it. All of the majo leades of925 wee women. We wee doing wokplace oganizing to give voice to women because they wee the ones who wee doing those jobs libaies Univesity of Cincinnati. It was all women doing that wok. Did you think of youself as a leade? I kind of gew into the ole. because as the yeas pogessed fo a vey long time I saw myself as an activist and a staff peson as it wee. But though the yeas and with moe esponsibility I supposed I mophed into a leade. 4

5 Valaie Long page 5 This might be a good time to ask you how you combined being a mothe with this fulltime labo union activity because it is not exactly a nine to five job! No it's not and my son (unintelligible wod) did bette o wose... One good thing about 925: it was kid fiendly so it was not unusual to have my child with me at Satuday meetings. We always had child cae. Thee would be times when I would go out house visiting o whateve the wok was and I would take my son with me. A lot of times he helped me get in the doo. But othe times I just wanted to spend time with him. I couldn't leave him with my gandmothe all the time. I was fotunate to have the extended family and a way to dop my kid off... When times got eally hectic at wok I could dop my kid off and still do my job. But the union was accommodating aound that and I was fotunate because in othe union situations I don't think that would have been the case. Being in a union oganization that was un by women and undestood women's issues o accommodations that had to be made fo people who had childen... I wouldn't be an oganize now; I wouldn't be a leade now if it wasn't fo that accommodation. This is a bit of a change. Did you...let me put it this way: what did you obseve about the oles and expeiences of men as eithe membes o oganizes in 925? Thee wee a couple that come to mind that wee vey talented oganizes. Tom Hoffman was one of them; he is still with SEIU now. He was one of the leades on the libay campaign. And also Matt Nathanson was one of the oganizes with Distict 925 in Cincinnati. And both of them played leadeship oles in oganizes on the campaigns wee vey awae of the oganization being un by stong women and ween't theatened by that. They made huge contibutions; it was a vey good patneship. Those two paticula men stick in my mind. Thee wee othes as well. Did 925 in its meetings o tainings deal with issues of acial o ethnic divesity in a diect and open way? Wee thee issues in the oganization aound that? I think the women's movement. in geneal and 925 being a manifestation of the women"s movement stuggled with ace issues. I don't emembe a paticula incident of this but if you look at a lot of the 925 histoy and legacy it is not ovewhelmingly people of colo o women of colo. Thee ae obviously women of colo who ae office wokes and wee pat of the women's movement. And I think thee was a stuggle that was had that I wasn't pivy to all the manifestations of it-this is just an obsevation-(but) I don't think we tackled the challenge of ace in the women's movement all that successfully. So even though you don't emembe o didn't expeience specific incidents you ae awae as an Afican-Ameican woman that you ae in a lagely white women's oganization. Is that kind of what you ae tying to say? I don't want to put wods in you mouth. 5

6 Valaie Long page 6 No I think that's accuate I think that's accuate I didn't look on it as a negative pe se but in etospect I would say that we pobably didn't deal with those challenges as well as we could have. I know thee wee discussions about tying to have the union leadeship eflect the membeship you know that kind of issue.. do you think that happened in Ohio to some extent? Could you epeat the question? I'm soy that was kind of involved.. A numbe of people that I have talked to have mentioned that thee wee attempts even though the uppe level leadeship of 925 wee white women to make to encouage the local union leadeship to eflect the ethnic/acial divesity of the membeship of the union. Do you think that happened to some extent in Ohio? I think that happened to some extent in Ohio. I think that was just a tenet of good oganizing to involve wokes who ae as divese as possible in age ethnicity depatments. If you ae going to do good oganizing then you ae going to have people who eflect the membeship in leadeship positions. But the highe up in the oganization the white it became. I guess we can get to the legacy questions of this naative. Do you conside that the aims of 925 wee ealized? I think it is a continuing stuggle. I think thee ae empoweed women fom 925 and successes in diffeent wokplaces thee is the chapte in Seattle. But I think the stuggle fo gende equality is one that continues in this county just as is the stuggle fo acial equality. I think we would be wose off had it not been fo the influence of 925. Do you emembe o wee you involved with othe kinds of activism going on in you community in those yeas you woked with 925? I was not an oveall activist in othe community endeavos. I had my hands full as a staffe doing oganizing along with aising my son. So I didn't get involved in a lot of the boade community oganizing o empowement activities going aound me. Do you emembe some of them? Back in the ealy days like in Cincinnati-I didn't live in Cincinnati so I wasn't pat of that community-i don't emembe what othe stuff was going on. In Cleveland quite fankly I commuted fom Ohio because I was living with my gandmothe. She had my son. So I was commuting back and foth to Cleveland about 36 miles o so. was in my little cocoon just doing my wok. I should have been moe involved in community issues I am sue thee was all kinds of stuff going on but actually I was not involved. 6

7 Valaie Long page 7 When you wee woking in Cleveland what oganizing campaigns wee you involved in? I was involved with the Blue Coss/Blue Shield campaign which was I guess some people say a "failed expeiment." It was an impotant endeavo to ty to oganize the (bief unintelligible section) and I woked with Tom HofTman on the libaies in Cuyahoga. When you look back on that Blue CosslBlue Shield oganizing how do you assess it? What do you think was going on? I think it was had to get wokes ultimately to have enough powe to take on the Blues in a eally big way to get enough taction with the boss to leveage a settlement that woked fo folks. Thee wee a lot of individual wokes who did good wok and we did some good wok collectively as a union but ultimately we didn't have a stategy that made it impotant fo the company to settle and let wokes have wokplace oganization. How long a campaign was that? Oh a yea maybe a couple of yeas. Could you hang up a second?... Soy about that. That's OK. What else is impotant in 925 to the legacy in you opinion? Can you epeat that? I'm soy... What othe things can you say about the legacy of 925 that you haven't mentioned? You talked about taining women leades in the labo movement.. Thee ae a lot of women in the labo movement who came though and continue to be leades because of thei involvement in 925. I think it was a good taining gound fo women and a good way to develop leadeship in a safe envionment and to nutue women leades because women undestand women and women wee vey good about taking the caft of oganizing taking it seiously and moving people in the system to oganize. And it caies on in the est of thei lives in diffeent positions of leadeship in the labo movement today. What thee anything that disappointed you Valaie about woking with 925? I don't have any disappointments about woking with 925. ] have vey fond memoies it was my stat young new I was vey fotunate not to be doing data enty fo a living. It wasn't like I stated with 925 saying this is what] always wanted to do. Having been given the oppotunity and seeing what the possibilities wee I was vey thankful to be in that cade of women. 7

8 Valaie Long page 8 What specifically happened when you made the tansition fom membe activist to fulltime oganize fo the union. Who appoached you what job wee you filling? When I came fom membe activist to staff peson it was in CWA whee I made the tansition. When I went fom CWA to SEIU I was inteviewed fo the position by Debbie Schneide at the Univesity of Cincinnati and I think Bonnie Ladin. I became an oganize. What is CWA? Communication Wokes of Ameica-CWA. What bought you to Washington D.C.? I was woking in Atlanta afte the Univesity of Cincinnati campaign. I woked on seveal campaigns in Ohio. Then I got tansfeed out of what was called the office wokes division and into the sevice division of SEIU and I woked in the Justice fo Janitos Campaign. What yeas would that have been? About And did you take you son down thee with you? Yep. How did that wok out without the extended family? Yes he moved down thee with me and we woked down thee fo a few yeas. Then I woked in L.A. he actually went to kindegaten in Los Angeles. We went back to Atlanta fo a shot time then we came to D. C. in 1991 something like that. And you ae still woking in that division of SEIU? Yeah I am a vice pesident of the intenational union and a vice pesident of the lagest popety sevices unit in the county afte being pesident of the local hee in D. C. that ecently meged with the lage popety sevices union. Ae you still diectly involved with Justice fo Janitos? Yeah I un pat of the popety sevices local that has 8000 membes in D. C. and anothe 4000 in Philadelphia. I am vice pesident fo this pat of the easten egion and one of fou vice pesidents of a depatment sevices local that has membes. I am vice pesident of the intenational {seveal unintelligible wods). 8

9 Valaie Long page 9 I see why you ae in aiplanes so much now! Yeah except I've got to figue out how to keep healthy with all the bad ai in aiplanes. What ae the main esponsibilities you have in you ole as vice pesident? I am a leade of the union. I un ou oganizing and political pogams what we call the ~~(unintelligible phase). My teitoy in Philadelphia to nothen Viginia. Then I sit on the steeing committee of the popety sevices division whee we make stategy decisions and policy decisions fo the popety sevice wokes in (unintelligible wods).... pat of the executive boad that makes policy and political decisions fo the whole union of million membes. The whole SEIU? So you ae dealing with you division and the whole union in a leadeship capacity. That's ight. You ae in a position to comment on whethe you think 925 had an impact on SEIU in geneal. Oh absolutely! Thee was a time when the union was looked at as an amalgamation of diffeent autonomous locals mostly un by men. It was based on the influence of 925 that moe women wee put into leadeship positions in the union. You know going back to the office wokes division Bonnie Ladin was made division diecto and then she was diecto of seveal pojects in the union. And othe women who took on leadeship positions within the union-anne Hill Debbie Schneide Bonnie Ladin Kaen. Those folks opened up a lot of doos fo folks. As you know now we have one of the majo labo leades of the county is ou secetay-teasue and the fist woman ofa majo fedeation-anna Bege. None of that would have been possible without the wok of 925 in SEIU. It had a huge impact on women being leades of this union. OK. This is kind of a eflective question. What did you lean about youself woking all these yeas with SEIU? I think I leaned how to manage lage pojects (est of section is unintelligible due to technical difficulties). Anothe way to ask that would be: what do you think you paticula stengths ae as an oganize and leade? I think I am a good listene and willing to take isks. I take isks on people and I expect people to thive and give people a (safety net)? so they can gow. And I think I undestand what othe oganizes ae capable of not just myself... (pause) You son must be in his twenties now? 9

10 Valaie Long page 10 I am a gandmothe! My ganddaughte will be thee May 3. Do you feel optimistic about the wok you ae doing now? Oh absolutely! I think the union is being a leade in the labo movement and we have vey good leadeship in the union. We'e not afaid to change to deal with union membeship going down in the county to ty to tun the county aound. I'm vey optimistic about the possibilities and vey poud of the isks we've taken. It's about tying to change the things that need to be changed; it is a vey exciting time. When you say "poud of the isks we've taken" can you give me a couple of examples of those isks? Well I think ou most ecent isk-the juy is still out on if it is the ight choice-we left the AFL-CIO with some othe unions that want to take back this county and oganize millions of sevice wokes... we ae going off this cliff togethe and taking vey seiously ou esponsibilities to unite wokes in the sevice industies. When I ead about unions in the newspapes it seems like 80% of the time it's about SEIU. And thee is UNITE HERE with thei Hotel Wokes Rising campaign theteamstes UFCW (United Food and Clothing Wokes)-all these unions ae taking vey seiously the esponsibility to oganize millions of wokes that ifnot fo the effots we'e tying to make don't have a chance in this county with the anti-woke laws and the antiwoke govenment. All of the capital of this county is so global now so you eally also have to wok with unions in othe counties which we'e doing well. Ae you involved with any of that? I've been woking with a local in South Afica oganizing secuity offices as pat of ou (unintelligible phase) to oganize secuity offices. It's exciting to be pat of discussions with that union. I've been thee twice. Thei movement is so diffeent than ous they had a wokes' stike... What is the main way thei union is diffeent fom yous? They ae only ten eleven yeas away fom apatheid and thei movement is younge and thei wokes have such a sense of entitlement and they have captued the essence of thei libeation stuggle. Ae they taking a lot of isks? They face a lot of the same challenges we have in this county with capital being so global. Thei stuggles ae made easie because thei wokes have such a sense of (?) about them. It will be inteesting to see if thei density-they have about 10

11 Valaie Long page 11 35% density now-will gow o they'll do what we did and stat declining. I keep saying to my comades ove thee "Don't make the same mistake we did keep on oganizing!" (Laughs.) If you just pay attention to what you have and not to (unintelligible section) labo movement in this county. Do you see youself continuing this wok the est of you woking days? Twenty yeas and counting I'm still. Othe than gadening (laughs). I don't have any plans to change. Anything moe you would like to add about what keeps you going as an oganize? I think what keeps me going as an oganize is the incedible amount of hope I have fo this county. It is an inspiing time. I was pivileged to be pat of a half a million immigation ally in D. C. I was standing on the stage-and we ended being an hou behind schedule because of my cackejack stage-managing but iegadless looking acoss these people... I emembe thinking to myself I knew I was too young to be pat of Matin Luthe King's Mach on Washington. but I had the feeling that he was pobably looking acoss a simila cowd back then and saying to himself "Oh my God now what ae we going to do!" (Laughs.) It gives you incedible hope that people can come out of the shadows and stand up and say we ae not going to be invisible. We ae not going to be teated as ciminals we want to pat of the Ameican Deam. It is this geneation's chance to take a movement and not stifle it but eally tanslate the powe of libeation that the immigants ae feeling and combining that with the stuggles of ace in this county the stuggle fo equality acoss all kinds of divesity and tanslate that into wokplace powe whee you can make it tangible. That is kind of whee we ae sitting in histoy to my mind. It is wondeful to be pat of that. Well you descibed vey well the feeling of a possible tuning point in what has been going on in this last yea o two. It's amazing just to playa small pat in this. Ou local hee is mostly immigants is mostly undocumented. An amazing tansfonnation is going on and tying to tap into the excitement of it... Since you wok on policy can you comment on what SEIU is doing on the hill with espect to immigation law efom? We ae battling with ou coalition patnes to make sue that whateve bill comes out is as woke-fiendly as possible. Thee ae a lot of vey negative foces at play hee. (Unintelligible sentence.) Some kind of compomise will be made. At the end of the day it is not about the bill it is about what people do to tanslate the powe that they feel now into tangible gains. Not a lot of legislation can do that; it all comes down to wokplace powe and community powe. 11

12 J Valaie Long page 12 Well Valaie I am eally glad we pesisted because you ae a vey aticulate inteviewee. I am soy it took a while. That's OK I am still woking on the poject. And thee ae a couple of moe people I am hoping to inteview by telephone. Is thee anything else at all you would like to add about the legacy of 925 befoe we close this inteview? No I am eally happy you ae doing this poject to captue this histoy. Fo the futue you have to know you histoy know what happened befoe so you can move fowad. It's a vey wothwhile poject and I'm happy to be pat of it. 12