[Peace] my few sentences about unions

[Karen Medina via Peace]

Dear Mike Howie at the News-Gazette,

Thank you for asking for some words about unions. I had troubles
limiting it to a few sentences because I am so grateful to have been
part of several unions.

--- my short submission ---

When you are part of a union, you are no longer just another
disposable worker, you are a person. I was better informed, better
educated, more full-filled and less frustrated when I belonged to a
union.

In solidarity,
Karen Medina

---- a longer submission from which the above was taken ---

I have worked a wide variety of jobs over the last 40 years (by the
way, I started working at the age of 10, delivering the News-Gazette
and babysitting). Only a few of those jobs had union representation --
so I have worked with and without a union in a wide variety of
situations. I am currently in a job without a union.

Sometimes the management's hands are tied by the hierarchy above them,
so the union can unite the voices of the workers at the bottom.
Workers unite for safer working conditions -- things as small as floor
mats to protect those of us who stand for long hours to things as big
as hazmat suits for going into life-threatening situations. When you
are part of a union, you are no longer just another disposable worker,
you are a person.

Unions also become a community -- when I was a member of the Graduate
Employees' Organization (GEO) on campus, they let us know about
volunteer opportunities, training opportunities, and other ways to
learn about events happening on campus and in the surrounding
community. I was better informed, more connected, better educated,
more full-filled, and less frustrated when I belonged to the union.

Wherever there is a union, there is community.

In solidarity,
Karen Medina