By Darryl Geddes
Women are poised to play a major role in shaping the future of organized labor, predicted Lenore Miller, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which represents 100,000 members throughout North America in retail, food processing and distribution, general manufacturing and clerical and service areas.
Miller, speaking before a small gathering of students, faculty and staff of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations March 11 at the ILR Conference Center, said women must become active participants in the union experience, especially as they face the brunt of the fallout from the downsizing of corporate America.
"Trade unions are the answer to help women cope with what's going to happen from all the job cutbacks," said Miller. "If employers seek to reduce the work force and if women are most affected by these cuts, they will organize."
Miller was on the Cornell campus March 11 to 13 as the Alice Grant Labor Leader in Residence. Past labor participants have included Lynn Williams, former president of the United Steelworkers of America (1995), and John Sweeney, current president of the AFL-CIO (1992).
Miller, who has headed the RWDSU for the past decade, said women and minorities were making progress climbing the union hierarchy. Recent changes in the RWDSU constitution enable the union to appoint an associate vice president for every elected vice president post. "This change has actually brought about a better representation of the rank and file in leadership, because it affords individuals who may not have been in the union for long to have considerable influence in union decision-making," Miller said.
She said the presence of women in trade unions has brought many new issues to the table. "We're simply not fighting for economics today but for a whole host of concerns, from flexible schedules to health care to child care," she said.
Miller urged students to take advantage of Union Summer, a new program initiated by the AFL-CIO to provide students with an opportunity to serve in the union over the summer. She suggested that programs such as Union Summer will give students a taste of union life and the commitment it requires. Miller announced that she has declined to accept the stipend paid to the Alice Grant Labor Leader in Residence so that it could be used instead to provide internships for ILR students.
Miller's lecture was sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women.
Miller has been president of the RWDSU since September 1986. In 1987, Miller became the first women union president to be elected an AFL-CIO vice president and a member of the federation's executive council. She has held numerous leadership posts since joining the union more than 35 years ago.
Her non-union positions include vice chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and president of the Jewish Labor Committee. In 1992, Miller took on one of the most public roles a union official can have: She served as grand marshal of the New York City Labor Day Parade.
The Alice B. Grant Labor Leader in Residence program is named for the former director of the ILR Extension Office in Rochester.