BRAVE, BOLD & BADASS
TEAMSTER WOMEN AT WORK!
Throughout our rich history, Teamster women have been engaged and active in their local
unions and communities. Teamster women have fought, and continue to fight, for social and economic justice. During the month of March our women’s committee celebrates their brave, bold & badass contributions that made a difference for women, working families & our union.
A very brief look back...
1900: By this year every state had passed legislation granting married women the right to keep their own wages and to own property in their own name.
1917: Going back to it's earliest days, the Teamsters union was the first to secure a gender blind & color blind contract.
1918: Teamster women show their Teamster power by playing a crucial role during WWI. With the great flu epidemic, Teamster women found themselves doing much more than keeping the home fires burning. Under Tobin’s leadership, women truck drivers transported medicine and supplies to hospitals and rural areas. These women would complete a day’s work, then pick up supplies to deliver to farm families. At each stop they would help with chores and get the family settled before moving on to the next stop.
1919: “Equal Pay For All” the Teamsters adopted this national slogan in 1919, and pushed for
wage equality.
1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, ensuring the right of women to vote.
Congress established the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, the only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage‐earning women and to promote the passage of legislation to protect working women
1929: A large number of Teamster women were employed by the laundry industry before World War II. Women members iron clothes at a large laundry company.
1934: A Women's Auxiliary group consisting of female supporters and the wives of strikers was set up to conduct solidarity work from the union headquarters, such as organize daily demonstrations at city hall, beef up picket lines, run a food commissary and help operate a small hospital for strikers injured on the picket lines and their families. Some of the women even took part in street fighting when workers clashed with police.
1935: National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") passed to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, which can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses and the U.S. economy
The Social Security Act passed to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes.
1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), introduced the forty-hour work week, established a national minimum wage for men and women, guaranteed "time-and-a-half" for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor."
1939-1945: WWII, Teamster women did their part for the war effort too. Women took on many jobs previously held only by men and proved they could hold their own in any work setting. They did every job given them and did them well. Teamster women also served in the women's branches of the military at posts in the United States and overseas.
1945: Teamster women Taxi drivers relax during a break from calls.
1952: In food processing, a National Conference of Fruit, Vegetable and Produce Industries was formed to cover employees in canneries and the new frozen food packing companies.
1955: A Teamster woman demonstrates agility and balance as she harvests mushrooms grown in an abandoned mine.
1950's-1960's: As the civil rights movement grew the Teamsters became very involved. The union provided money and supplies to many civil rights groups, including the more than 700 families living in "Freedom Village," who faced retribution for registering to vote in 1960.
The Teamsters had a good working relationship with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with representatives on civil rights boards and committees. And, union members and leaders were active participants in the movement at a time when such actions were considered risky, if not down right dangerous for any organization. Here in 1968—Clara Day, Business Agent and Community Services Director for Local 743 in Chicago became one of the most prominent women in the union. Day greets Civil Rights leader Ralph Abernathy.
Clara Day joined Local 743 in 1955 after successfully helping to organizing more than 3,000 Montgomery Ward employees. Shortly thereafter, she was brought onto the staff of Local 743 to represent the same workers she had helped bring to the union. In 1976 she was elected to the Local 743 Executive Board and served as Trustee and Recording Secretary for more than 20 years. Day’s proudest achievements included serving as a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) in 1974 and leading a delegation of union members in the historic March on Washington in the company of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. She was very active in the battle to pass the Equal Rights Amendment for women and was named as a spokesperson for women’s issues and other topics related to social justice.She was a founding member of the Teamsters National Black Caucus in 1976.
1962: More than 15,000 women come to Washington D.C. between 1962 and 1968 to lobby for labor-related issues through the DRIVE groups. Politicians like LBJ consider them to be the best political action group around. The women were well informed and not shy about holding Senators and Congressmen accountable for their campaign promises.
Especially daunting for the politicians were the well-publicized "Scoring Banquets" held in Washington, where D.R.I.V.E. delegates would get up and rate politicians' voting records--often with the spotlighted Senator or Congressman seated at the table.
Senator Hubert Humphrey said he had never seen a more effective political action program than the Teamster women's motorcades.
1963: The Equal Pay Act is passed promising equitable wages for the same work, regardless of the race, color, religion, national origin or sex of the worker.
1964: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act passes prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is created.
1965: Viola Liuzzo, wife of a Teamster business agent, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan for her role in the civil rights movement. Joining the movements carpool system, she gave rides to civil rights marchers in and around Selma. On an isolated road outside of Selma, while giving a ride to Leroy Moton, a 19 year old black man, Liuzzo was ambushed and shot to death.
1965: Mrs. Ted Owens of Local 291 looks out from behind the wheel of her 15 ton dump truck. She learned to balance work and family in a unique way.
1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs an executive order prohibiting sex discrimination by government contractors and requiring affirmative action plans for hiring women.
1968: Teamsters organize Pan Am workers at JFK airport. Pan Am and Braniff were major organizing campaigns in the 1960s.
1970: The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) was passed to prevent workers from being killed or otherwise harmed at work. The law requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers. The OSH Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets and enforces protective workplace safety and health standards.
1973: San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park employees, all Teamsters, tend their charges. Teamsters cover occupations from A to Z Airlines to Zoo Keepers.
1974: The Supreme Court rules it is illegal to force pregnant women to take maternity leave on the assumption they are incapable of working in their physical condition.
1975: The United States Supreme Court in the case of NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. 420 U.S. 251 upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that employees have a right to union representation at investigatory interviews. These rights have become known as the Weingarten Rights. During an investigatory interview, the Supreme Court ruled that the following rules apply:
Rule 1: The employee must make a clear request for union representation before or during the interview. The employee cannot be punished for making this request.
Rule 2: After the employee makes the request, the employer must choose from among three options: grant the request and delay questioning until the union representative arrives and (prior to the interview continuing) the representative has a chance to consult privately with the employee; deny the request and end the interview immediately; or give the employee a clear choice between having the interview without representation, or ending the interview. Rule 3: If the employer denies the request for union representation, and continues to ask questions, it commits an unfair labor practice and the employee has a right to refuse to answer. The employer may not discipline the employee for such a refusal.
1975-1980's: Regina V. Polk fought diligently for workers’ rights, working as a labor organizer and business agent for the Teamsters in the late 1970's and early 1980's, defying stereotypes and empowering women in a male-dominated workforce. In 1976, she introduced a resolution on behalf of the Teamster Women's Council to the 21st Constitutional Convention to "launch an intensive organizing campaign directed at those areas of the labor force in which women are concentrated" the resolution went on to point out that although increasing membership was one goal another was promoting "greater participation of women members at every level of the IBT." The resolution was adopted. By 1980, Polk was featured in Time magazine and The New York Times, and her reputation grew as a “brazen, unapologetic warrior with a talent for handling grievances, most notably for employees at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the University of Chicago Hospital, Chicago State University, and Governors State University. In 1983, the 33-year-old Polk was set to travel on a fundraising mission in Carbondale, IL, and would attend a meeting to help dislocated workers gain better access to job training. Just after 9 p.m., Polk, seven passengers, and three crew members were killed when their Air Illinois aircraft crashed.
1978: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.
1980s: Maria Brandon of Local 786 in Elmhurst, Illinois stands by the heavy duty equipment she works with every day.
1980's: A growing number of Teamster women in every field including law enforcement, medical technologies and parcel delivery.
1986: The U.S. Supreme Court held that a work environment can be declared hostile or abusive because of discrimination based on sex, an important tool in sexual harassment cases.
1991-2005: In what many believe was to become the longest strike in U.S. history, 600 Teamster-represented workers walk out at the Diamond Walnut processing plant in Stockton, Calif., after the company refused to restore a 30-percent pay cut they had earlier taken to help out the company. The two sides ultimately agreed to a new contract after 14 years in 2005.
1993: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed into law requiring covered employers to provide employees job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons.
2009: The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act allows victims, usually women, of pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck.
2017: Teamster women from local 638 join the largest women's march in history to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues, including women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, the natural environment, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion,and workers' rights. We are also looking forward to celebrating our women's committee 10 year milestone.
Teamster women have made important and distinctive contributions to our union and sharing their stories and examples of leadership help us to realize that we too can take an active part in our union. How will you be brave? Have you tried being bold? What does it take for a badass Teamster woman to persist?
When I remember the ladies, that's where I find, what is in her heart is also in mine.
RESOURCES
https://teamster.org/womens-history-month/news
http://www.apwu.org/labor-history-articles/regina-v-polk-breaking-mold
https://youtu.be/O-Ohd3QfGUw
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-01-20/timeline-the-womens-rights-movement-in-the-us
http://www.afscme.org/for-members/womens-leadership-training/leadership-tools/body/Women_in_Labor_History_Timeline.pdf
https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3021.pdf
