This document discusses strategies for organizing and developing women leaders in unions based on the example of Eleanor Roosevelt. It summarizes Roosevelt's advocacy for workers and unions as first lady, political leader, and UN delegate. The document highlights Roosevelt's questioning of Rose Schneiderman in 1922 about why women should join unions and Schneiderman's response about poor wages and working conditions. It provides examples of women union leaders like Schneiderman, Frances Perkins, and Maida Springer and emphasizes the importance of mentors, coalitions, addressing women's priorities, and communication.

1. WHY SHOULD WOMEN JOIN UNIONS?
ORGANIZING & LEADING WITH
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

2. MATERIAL PREPARED BY
BRIGID O’FARRELL
MILLS COLLEGE
UAW Local 1981
BASED ON
SHE WAS ONE OF US:
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND THE AMERICAN WOKER
Cornell University Press 2010
PROJECT FUNDED BY
BERGER-MARKS FOUNDATION

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
ARE YOU REACHING OUT TO NEW WOMEN WORKERS
TO INTEREST THEM IN JOINING THE UNION?

4. 1. INTRODUCTION
ARE YOU REACHING OUT TO WOMEN WORKERS
TO INTEREST THEM IN JOINING THE UNION?
YES!
Union organizer, officer, member-it’s your job.
• Unions win with organizing by members
• Successful strategies develop women leaders

5. WORKSHOP GOALS
USING HISTORY TO HELP
• Organize women workers
• Energize women members
• Develop women leaders

6. SELECTED STRATEGIES FOR
ORGANIZING & LEADERSHIP
1. Highlight the importance of women’s contributions-past &
present
2. Address women’s true priorities
3. Create and support formal mentoring programs
4. Provide opportunities for women to strategize together
5. Put women in leadership positions
6. Provide flexible options for involvement
7. Provide training on mobilizing women

7. 2. WHY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT?
Eleanor Roosevelt, fourteen years old, 1898

8. The Roosevelt Family, 1919

9. WHY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT?
BECAUSE AS ONE OF THE MOST ADMIRED, VILIFIED,
& INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY ER
WAS A:
Worker, Newspaper columnist and author
Union Member, The Newspaper Guild 1936-1962
Member, National Women’s Trade Union League
Advocate, for working women, unions, & civil rights

10. SHE BROUGHT LABOR TO HER ROLES AS:
• First Lady of the United States & the World
• Political Leader of the Democratic Party
• Delegate to the United Nations
Chair, Commission on Human Rights
• Chair, Commission on the Status of Women
• Wife, mother, daughter-in-law, grandmother, friend

11. CONSEQUENCES
• Death Threats
• Church Bombing
Ku Klux Klan
Texas White Citizen Council
• Column Cancelled

12. WHY SHOULD WOMEN JOIN UNIONS?
QUESTION
“Mrs. Roosevelt asked many questions but she was
particularly interested in why I thought women
should join unions...”
What do you think Rose Schneiderman told Mrs.
Roosevelt in 1922?

13. Answer
Craft Unionism
• Poor wages
• Long hours
Social Unionism
• Health care
• Housing
• Financial assistance
• Cultural activities
• Who Was Rose Schneiderman?

14. STRATEGIES
• MENTORS
• COALITIONS
• LEADERS
• PRIORITIES
• COMMUNICATION

15. MENTOR:Rose Schneiderman, early twenties, ca. 1908

16. COALITIONS

17. National Farm Labor Committee, 1959

18. Martin Luther King & Rosa Parks
AFL-CIO News, 1961

19. NEW LEADERS
FRANCES PERKINS
Frances Perkins @1911

20. LEADERSHIP QUALITY AND SKILLS
• Frances Perkins
Wrote & Administered the legislation
• Rose Schneiderman
Joined the NIRA to implement the law
• Eleanor Roosevelt
Gathered Information & Educated the public

21. Frances Perkins, WTUL, 1936
International Labor Exchange, 1945
Maida Springer, White House, 1945

22. WOMEN LEADERS
Maid Springer, 1910-2004

23. Jessie De La Cruz, 1919-
United Farm Workers Union
Ah Quan McElrath, 1915-2004
Int. Longshore Workers Union

24. WOMEN’S PRIORITIES
Learn about the underlying problems
•Listen to workers
•Visit work locations
•Ask questions
•Observe conditions

25. • World War II
Equal pay, factory jobs, child care, meals
• The United Nations
Equal pay, discrimination
Commission on Women
• Commission on the Status of Women
Union Women & the Equal Rights Amendment

26. ORT Training Program, Paris, 1948

27. PRESIDENT’S COMMISSIONON THE STATUS
OF WOMEN
• Role of Union Women
• First Report on Minority
Women
• Gathering information
Esther Peterson, 1906-1997

28. COMMUNICATION*
Unions must tell their stories to the public
OLD MEDIA
• My Day Syndicated Newspaper Column: Over 8,000
• Magazine articles: Average of 50 per year
• Speeches: Average of 50 per year
• Books: 27
• Letters: Thousands and thousands per year
• Testimony before Congress
• Speeches to Union Conventions
• Commissions & Committees

29. CIO Convention Floor, 1944

30. NEW MEDIA
Radio Shows,
Television Show
Web page, Facebook, Tweet, Blog

31. AFL-CIO Merger Convention, 1955

32. 4. OUTREACH
WORKERS’ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Democracy in the workplace as a model for the country
Democracy in the workplace as a model for the world
DELEGATE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Chair, Commission on Human Rights

33. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS*
ARTICLE 23
1. Everyone has the right to work
2. Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to
equal pay for equal work
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and
favourable remuneration
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions

34. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

35. WHO IS YOUR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
TODAY?

36. WHO IS YOUR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
TODAY?
Liz Shuler, IBEW
Sec.Treas., AFL-CIO
Michelle Obama
First Lady of the US Hillary Clinton,
US Sec. of State
Hilda Solis, Rose Ann DeMoro, Ex. Dir. Arlene Holt Baker,
US Sec. of Labor National Nurses United AFSCME. Exec. VP, AFL-CIO

37. 6. CLOSE TO HOME
• MENTORS
• LEADERS
• COALITIONS
• WOMEN’S PRIORITIES
• COMMUNICATION
• HUMAN RIGHTS

38. AFL-CIO Memorial Poster, 1963