March is Women’s History Month. From the sit-down strikes of 1936-37 through the war years of Rosie the Riveter, from the postwar fight for jobs to today’s campaigns for pay equity and safe workplaces, women have played a key role in UAW history. Side by side, women and men are building a stronger union every day. We salute UAW women everywhere. Here’s the story of one noteworthy UAW woman: Millie Jeffrey Jeffrey in 1960 from the Reuther Photo Archives at Wayne State Millie Jeffrey was a long time union and political activist who became the first director of the UAW ...
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Olga Marie Madar was the first woman to serve on the United Auto Workers (UAW) International Executive Board. Born in the coal mining town of Sykesville, Pa., on May 17, 1915, Madar moved to Detroit with her family during the Depression. After graduating from Northeastern High School in 1933, she began to spend her summers working on the assembly line at Chrysler’s Kercheval plant and the Bower Rolling Bearing plant in order to fund her college education. In 1938, Madar graduated from Michigan Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University), having earned a degree in physical education. In 1941, Madar left ...
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March is Women’s History Month. From the sit-down strikes of 1936-37 through the war years of Rosie the Riveter, from the postwar fight for jobs to today’s campaigns for pay equity and safe workplaces, women have played a key role in UAW history. Side by side, women and men are building a stronger union every day. We salute UAW women everywhere. Here’s the story of a few noteworthy UAW women: Flint Women’s Auxiliary From Reuther Photo Archives at Wayne State University The Flint Women’s Auxiliary collected money for families, visited strike widows to improve their morale, and provided child care ...
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March is Women’s History Month. From the sit-down strikes of 1936-37 through the war years of Rosie the Riveter, from the postwar fight for jobs to today’s campaigns for pay equity and safe workplaces, women have played a key role in UAW history. Side by side, women and men are building a stronger union every day. We salute UAW women everywhere. Here’s the story of one noteworthy UAW woman: Millie Jeffrey Jeffrey in 1960 from the Reuther Photo Archives at Wayne State Millie Jeffrey was a long time union and political activist who became the first director of the UAW ...
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March is Women’s History Month. From the sit-down strikes of 1936-37 through the war years of Rosie the Riveter, from the postwar fight for jobs to today’s campaigns for pay equity and safe workplaces, women have played a key role in UAW history. Side by side, women and men are building a stronger union every day. We salute UAW women everywhere. Here’s the story of one noteworthy UAW woman: Caroline Davis Circa 1950s from the Reuther Photo Archives at Wayne State Caroline Davis was president of Local 764 in Indiana, and the second director of the Women’s Department from the ...
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The first bill President Barack Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on Jan. 29, 2009, which helped fight the wage gap between men and women doing the same work. The act amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by requiring that the 180-day statute of limitations for women to file an equal-pay lawsuit be reset with each new paycheck instead of expiring after 180 days after the first unequal paycheck is issued. The law was in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that said the clock starts ticking for the deadline to file a ...
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As we observe Women’s History Month we know that unions have done so much to improve the lives of women, especially when it comes to making sure they get the same pay as men for doing the same work. Collective bargaining agreements ensure that all workers get the same pay for the same work regardless of gender. Women in unions make more than nonunion women, especially Hispanic women who earn roughly $739 per week as a union member rather than $520 per week for a nonunion, Hispanic woman. They have much better pension plans and health care coverage than nonunion women. ...
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