March is Women’s History Month and across the nation, there will be special events and tributes to mark the accomplishments of women in America. In seminars and conferences, on TV specials and marathon runs, the accomplishments of women historically and today will be on full display. March is a time when the struggles, wisdom and unique perspective of women are recognized, analyzed and immortalized from the words of Maya Angelou ( “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”) to the words of Rihanna (“There’s something special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”)
There are so many extraordinary women, past and present, who personify these sentiments: The unsung heroines, like a next-door neighbor who juggles two jobs and three kids to make a house a home. The unparalleled bravery of Harriet Tubman, Rosie the Riveter, who inspired a generation, and current women of valor—like the young soldier who left her family behind and stands guard in the Middle East. There’s women who took a sledgehammer to the “glass ceiling” like Vice President Kamala Harris, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. There are also women who express such tremendous empathy and compassion for people they have never met, like the neonatal nurse tenderly caring for preemies, as well as Dr. Ruth Gottesman, who just made a historic donation of $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx to provide medical students with free tuition going forward.
In the labor movement, there are many women who have set examples of courage and determination to improve the lives of working women and families. Some did so indirectly and regrettably, as in the case of the 146 young immigrant garment working girls killed and the 78 who sustained injuries in the notorious 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village. From exit doors chain-locked by their employers to Fire Department ladders too short to reach them, the findings in the aftermath of that horrendous fire led to our state and the nation to legislate safety and health measures to protect workers on the job. Women have in fact come a long way and played a significant part in building labor unions since those young sweatshop girls perished in a fire largely because they didn’t have a union. Today, Elizabeth H. Shuler is president of the national AFL-CIO, a federation of 57 unions and 12.5 million working people across all sectors of the U.S. economy. She is the first woman to hold that position.
At Local 237, we don’t have to look very far for fearless women with an extraordinary strength of character who exemplify “never take no for an answer.” They are the sisterhood, working with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Consider war correspondent Marie Colvin, who has a connection to labor. Colvin wrote about innocent women and children caught in the crossfire of civil war. Her bravery was legendary. A movie, “A Private War,” tells the real-life story of Marie Colvin, portrayed by Rosamund Pike.
It depicts her life behind enemy lines covering stories of human suffering that many did not want told, in dangerous locations, where few would dare to go. It was actually a sentence in one of the movie’s reviews that caused us to wonder about a possible link to Teamsters Local 237. Our research paid off because we discovered that fresh out of college, she was hired by Local 237 to write our newsletter. Marie Colvin was a Teamster! Her family told us that she wore our lapel pin proudly. One could easily imagine her today, condemning the bombing of innocent women and children in Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza—if she were still alive. Marie’s journalistic diligence caused her to lose her eye at the hands of Sri Lankan terrorists in 2001, then her life, at age 56 in 2012, killed by a senior Syrian military officer to silence her.
As proud as we are of Marie, there are several other Teamster women who have done remarkable things on different battlegrounds. In March of 2010, Local 237 sued New York City on behalf of our 5,000 School Safety Agents, 70% of whom were women, mostly African Americans and Latinas. Many were single mothers. Their annual salary was about $7,000 less than their counterparts with similar titles working in other mostly male city agencies. Some called this just a coincidence. It was discrimination! School Safety Agents have a tough job to do. They help to protect other peoples’ children. All they wanted was to put bread on the table for their own children. So I called for a meeting of School Safety Agents to tell them about plans to sue the City. I told them that we needed some volunteers to sign the papers and be the official plaintiffs. Of the 25 women in the room, 22 left. But three remained: Patricia Williams, Bernice Christopher and the late Corinthians Andrews. And for four years, these three women gave testimony after testimony. They refused any settlement that did not include retirees. They took days off from work. They took time away from being with their families. They worked on the case despite health issues and attended our rallies. At times, we felt pretty much alone, but then we received support from several luminaries, including Dr. Hazel Dukes, president of the NYS NAACP; Sonia Ossorio, president of the NYC Chapter of NOW; and Lilly Ledbetter, who learned firsthand about gender-based pay discrimination when an anonymous note left in her locker on her last day at work before her retirement, let her know that she was earning much less than her male co-workers. She took that fight all the way to the Supreme Court! Lilly Ledbetter came from her home in Alabama to stand in solidarity with Local 237 on the steps of City Hall for our protest rally.
Finally, after years of rallies and legal wrangling by the city, judgment day came. I still remember Pat, Bernice, and Corinthians walking into the courthouse and kneeling in prayer before they took their seats. Perhaps there was a little divine intervention, but with the help of Hazel, Sonia and Lilly an historic settlement was reached. Clearly, the words of Vice President Kamala Harris ring true: “You’re going to walk into many rooms where you may be the only one who looks like you or has had your experiences. So, use that voice and be strong.” And that’s exactly what these women did!
Throughout the pandemic and hard economic times, our women members have played and continue to play an integral part helping to keep the city functioning. Women’s History Month is the time organizations single out extraordinary women to honor. For us, at Local 237, it is not a difficult task. We are especially blessed to have among our own members so many who have distinguished themselves through acts of integrity and humanity. So, while we thank the historic and heroic women who made headlines, we take pride in acknowledging our own Pat, Bernice, Corinthians, and Marie and the sisterhood of Teamsters Local 237.