Public Employee Press

AFSCME scholarship winner
What AFSCME has meant to my family

The following essay helped Samantha Glass, the daughter of a DC 37 member, win an AFSCME Family Scholarship. Glass attends Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she is majoring in English.

Her mother Sheera Glass is a Claims Specialist with the Health and Hospitals Corp. and is the secretary of Local 154.

Each year, the Family Scholarship Program of AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 37's national union) provides 10 scholarships of $2,000 a year, renewable for up to four years, for graduating high school seniors whose parents are members. The application deadline is Dec. 31. For more information, visit www.AFSCME.org or telephone 202-429-5066.

By SAMANTHA GLASS

"Honk for the Congress Plaza's employees to earn a living wage!" read the sign I proudly held on a sidewalk in downtown Chicago. On a warm July day in 2010, every city bus driver that passed the hotel waved and honked at the protest of Local 1.

Earlier that day, the president of Local 1 talked to a group of 48 Jewish teenagers touring the U.S. and learning about social action. Chicago was merely the fourth stop on our trip, yet it was the one I connected to most. We learned that the dishwashers, maids, and restaurant servers were being paid nearly half the equivalent salary at other Chicago hotels.

Astonished at how out-of-touch the owner of the hotel was, we wanted to help as soon as we heard. For hours we walked in circles in front of the hotel, chanting rally slogans and listening to workers talk about their terrible working conditions, and life without the benefits and salary they needed to live. One story that affected me most was Mary's. As a single mother of two, working two jobs, she was forced to wait for the end of the week to know her hours for the upcoming week.

Being part of an extremely pro-union family, I always heard buzzwords like "living wage" and "Medicare." I knew my mom went to long meetings after work and as secretary of her local, had to type minutes every week. Yet I never bothered to ask her what it was really all about. The evening after the protest, I eagerly called my mom to tell her that I finally understood everything she was fighting for.

I had realized that fighting for unions and workers' rights was an inherently Jewish issue. Perhaps I should have made the connection already from my background. The Jewish history is one of persecution. From being slaves in ancient Egypt, to the horrors of the Holocaust, Jews have been subject to poor treatment, so for us, to sit idly by while a neighbor suffers is unacceptable. The value of helping someone in need is a shared value by both the Jewish community and the union.

When I returned home from my trip, I began to research the history of union activism in my family. I called the matriarch of my family, my grandmother, and found out that she worked as a teacher's aide in Brooklyn, New York and joined DC 37, Local 372. Her local was the first to receive a pension for part-time employees. As a retiree, she has a monthly defined benefit in addition to her health benefits and pharmaceutical card. Without these benefits, my grandma would not be able to pay the medical bills for her recent surgery and cover the nursing costs. She is incredibly grateful for AFSCME's push for the part-time pension. Currently, my grandma is a member of DC 37's Retiree Association.

My grandpa was also on the executive board as a delegate in the cake baker's union in the mid-1960s through the late 1980s. He fought hard for better working conditions for all employees and for fair wages and benefits for all. Unfortunately, illness forced him to take early retirement. Constantly entering and exiting the hospital, working became nearly impossible. My grandparents' benefits paid for the medical bills until his untimely death, keeping our family financially stable.

When my mom graduated college, she secured a job as a paralegal, quickly joining Local 154. As a mother with a full-time job, she had the benefit of not struggling to take time off without pay to take care of me. She has realized that not everybody has this luxury, so as local secretary, she continues to fight for child care and family leave.

Following in the footsteps of my predecessors, I know that standing up for rights, working conditions, and fair wages will continue to be a focal point in my life as I get older. These values were instilled in me at a young age and I know they continue to shape my outer consciousness. I have realized that AFSCME's values are those of my family and my religion. Social action and ensuring that no voice goes unheard is extraordinarily important to me on a personal level as well.

AFSCME doesn't only concern my family; it's about making sure other, potentially worse-off families have jobs and retirement security. AFSCME has made my family extremely conscious of the greater community and the need to fight for the rights of others, even if their gains are not directly mine.

Anyone who spends their life working hard deserves their rights, regardless of their race, gender, or religion. Standing up for those who don't have the means to competently combat large corporations is my family's, religion's, and ultimately, my most important value.