Elizabeth “Liz” Jackson was born Jan 18, 1918, long before the UAW’s founding in 1935. Yet once she joined the union, it seemed to be a role crafted especially for her. She was a devoted trade unionist and member of Local 600. She was an African American woman with a voice that captivated audiences and analytical skills that made negotiators pay attention. She was the first African American woman appointed to an International staff position and the first to be appointed an administrative assistant. She earned a berth in history books as a leader for the labor movement, African Americans ...
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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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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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March is Women’s History Month. Women have always made history and they reminded us of their power by marching in record numbers on Jan. 21. More than two million women around the world marched to show their strength in protecting civil, human and reproductive rights of women, packing the streets of our nation’s capital in and marching through the downtowns of cities and towns, large and small, across America. Women and their supporters arrived in Washington on buses or flew from all over the country to show the power of women to defend their rights, encourage each other to donate ...
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On March 24, 1974, over 3,000 determined labor union women and supportive feminists from across the United States convened in Chicago to create the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). Taking planes, trains and automobiles, the women gathered to outline a plan of action that would amplify their voices in the male-dominated labor movement of the time. The UAW is proud of its role at that founding convention, which elected then-UAW Vice President Olga Madar as its first president. CLUW’s first convention established four goals that would guide its work to improve and empower working women: Promote workplace affirmative action ...
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