1. WHY WOMEN SHOULD JOIN UNIONS
ORGANIZING AND LEADING WITH
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
A DISCUSSION GUIDE
To help workshop facilitators use historical information and documents about union women to
organize women workers and develop union women leaders today:
using our past to change our future!

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PREPARED BY
BRIGID O’FARRELL
MILLS COLLEGE
BASED ON
SHE WAS ONE OF US:
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND THE AMERICAN WOKER
Cornell University Press, 2011
ADAPTED FOR USE WITH UNION WOMEN IN TEN SUMMER SCHOOLS,
CONFERENCES, CAUCUSES, AND ORGANIZING INSTITUTES ACROSS THE
COUNTRY: FROM FLORIDA TO HAWAII
Available at: www.bofarrell.net
Funded by: Berger-Marks Foundation
www.bergermarks.org
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WHY WOMEN SHOULD JOIN UNIONS
OVERVIEW FOR
FOR WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
The following materials are designed to be flexible so that you can create a workshop that will
meet the interests and needs of your audience. Every workshop, the participants, and the amount
of time available differ. The suggested workshop format is 90 minutes for 10 to 20 participants.
Depending on the interests and skills of your group, you can choose from the various handouts
and discussion guides to focus on what is most useful for you in the time available. This guide
can be used as one unit or the different sections and materials can be used independently or
incorporated into existing workshops.
If you are organizing and training women workers, then this new information on Eleanor
Roosevelt can be of help in various formats. Be creative and take risks!
Workshop Goals
Organize women workers
Energize women members
Develop women’s leadership skills
Selected Strategies
Becoming mentors
Building coalitions
Developing new leaders
Identifying women’s priorities
Using traditional and new media to communicate
Potential Audiences
• Union organizing departments and committees
• Worker and community meetings
• CLUW chapters
• Women’s committees
• Local union executive boards
• Regional and international education departments
• Workshops at conferences dealing with union women’s issues.
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Materials Needed
Flip chart and markers
Optional computer and video projector if you are using the Power Point Presentation
Flexible Workshop Handouts
(6 pages doubled sided)
1. Title—With Eleanor Roosevelt’s Union Card
2. Workshop Agenda
3. Eleanor Roosevelt: Union Leader
4. Resources: Eleanor Roosevelt and Berger Marks Reports
5. The Union Advantage Fact Sheet
6. Mentors and Friends: Photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt and Rose Schneiderman
7. My Day Column, March 13, 1941
8. Current Opinion Piece, May 3, 2011
9. Human Rights and Workers Rights in Multiple Languages
10. Lessons Learned from Eleanor Roosevelt
11. Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes (2 pages)
Optional Small Group Discussions
(With questions and answer guides)
• Leadership: Different Decisions
• Leadership: Different Styles
• Organizing: Human Rights
Action Plan: Close to Home Activity
Who is your Eleanor Roosevelt Today?
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Brief Biography
Slide Presentation
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WHY WOMEN SHOULD JOIN UNIONS
WORKSHOP AGENDA
1. INTRODUCTION
Instructors &Participants
Goals & Strategies
2. WHY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Brief Background
Why Should Women Join Unions?
3. STRATEGIES
Mentors
Coalitions
New Leaders
Women’s Priorities
Communication
4. OUTREACH
A Human Rights Example
5. CLOSE TO HOME
Small Group Discussion
Report Back
6. CONCLUSION
Handouts 1 & 2: Provide the participants with the Union Card cover page, sponsoring
organization or program information, and the workshop agenda. The union card, printed
separately in card size and on heavy paper, is an effective handout. The back can be used as an
invitation, announcement, or you can add favorite quotes.
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1. Introduction
(10 Minutes)
ARE YOU REACHING OUT TO WOMEN WORKERS
TO INTEREST THEM IN JOINING THE UNION?
Every union member should answer this question with a resounding YES.
If you’re a union organizer then it’s your job.
If you’re a union officer then it’s your job.
If you’re a union member then it’s your job.
Unions win more elections when the organizing drive is conducted by ordinary members. One
of several strategies shown to be effective for organizing women workers and developing women
leaders is to highlight the accomplishments of women in the labor movement, past and present.
Today, we are going to introduce you to a champion for women workers and then ask you to
identify women in your community who can be role models to help organize and develop new
women leaders.
What can savvy women activists of the twenty-first century learn from a woman born to a life
of privilege and wealth in 1884; the wife of the President of the United States? Just wait….
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A. Introduction of Discussion Leader (s)
Discussion leaders introduce themselves, including some
information about their work life and union experience.
B. Introduction of Participants
Ask participants to introduce themselves and suggest one thing they know or would like
to know about Eleanor Roosevelt. Use the flip chart to note common themes.
• Your name, local union, & role (e.g. activists, steward, organizer, etc.)
• One thing you know or would like to know about Eleanor Roosevelt
C. Overview of Goals and Strategies
• Agree on the basic goals
Organizing women workers, energizing women members, and developing women’s leadership
skills are the goals of many unions. These are the goals of this workshop to help strengthen the
labor movement by building on our labor history. Like many union women, Eleanor Roosevelt’s
labor story has not been told before so this will be new information for most participants.
• Learn the basic strategies to organize women and develop leaders
Researchers have identified several important strategies to organize women and develop their
leadership skills. Eleanor Roosevelt’s words and actions provide historical examples for several
of today’s strategies: being mentors, working with coalitions, encouraging new leaders,
identifying true priorities, and communicating with new and old media. Discuss how to apply
these strategies in your organizing and leadership efforts.
• Discuss how to apply these strategies in your organizing and leadership efforts.
We’ll provide specific examples of Eleanor Roosevelt’s words and actions. Then we can talk
about how lessons from her experience can be used by your union. Can you use the human rights
message to reach out to women and the community? Who is your Eleanor Roosevelt today?
What makes sense to help your union:
Organize Women Workers, Energize Women Members, and Develop Women Leaders
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2. Why Eleanor Roosevelt?
(10 Minutes)
A. Background
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most admired and controversial women of the
twentieth century: a gifted teacher, skilled political operative, effective government negotiator,
successful diplomat, inspirational public speaker, influential columnist, respected author—and a
proud union member for over twenty-five years:
• Worker, Newspaper columnist and author
• Union Member, The Newspaper Guild 1936-1962
• Member, National Women’s Trade Union League
• Advocate, for working women, unions, & civil rights
Eleanor Roosevelt brought her labor perspective to her roles as First Lady of the United States &
the world, political leader of the Democratic Party, delegate to the United Nations, Chair of the
UN Commission on Human Rights, Chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of
Women, and as wife, mother, daughter-in-law, grandmother, friend. Eleanor and Franklin
Roosevelt had six children in the first ten years of their marriage. She overcame tragedy and
great personal loss.
ER, as she often signed her name, took risks and faced serious consequences for her activism.
Over her lifetime she received numerous death threats and had her column canceled for her civil
and labor rights positions. A bomb exploded in church where she was to speak, the Ku Klux
Klan had a bounty on her head, and she had one of the largest FBI files on record.
Handouts 3 & 4: Point out to participants the one page summary about Eleanor Roosevelt
highlighting her union role and the additional resources available both about her life and the
reports on union women’s organizing and leadership.
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B. Why Should Women Join Unions?
“Mrs. Roosevelt asked many questions but she was particularly interested in why I thought
women should join unions...”
Rose Schneiderman was a cap maker by trade and union organizer by vocation. She was a
member of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and president of the Women’s
Trade Union League when Mrs. Roosevelt asked her that question in 1922.
Ask Participants: What do you think Rose Schneiderman told Mrs. Roosevelt?
Use the flip chart to write down the key words participants use to answer Mrs. Roosevelt’s
question. Many women will mention wages and economic benefits, as well safety and health
concerns. Prompt them with questions like, Have you heard of the Triangle Fire where 146
young workers, mostly immigrant women were burned to death in 1911? What were their
issues?
Then ask for a volunteer to read the actual response.
I remember so well telling here that that was the only way working people could help
themselves. I pointed to the unions of skilled men and told her how well they were doing. By
contrast, women were much worse off because they were less skilled or had no skills and could
be easily replaced if they complained. They were working for $3.00 a week for nine or ten hours
a day, often lower. It all seemed understandable to her.
Rose Schneiderman offered poor wages and long hours as the key reason for joining a union.
While wages and working conditions have improved dramatically since 1922, many of the issues
are similar today and unions continue to improve wages and working conditions for their
members.
Today the Union Advantage is a very critical aspect of union organizing. Union women and
men earn more money, are more likely to have health insurance, disability benefits, and pensions
than are non-union workers. Women, however, are also very likely to be concerned about
dignity and respect on the job and the importance of having a voice of work.
Handout 5: The Union Advantage Fact Sheet provides data on the economic benefits to joining
a union.
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3. STRATEGIES
(30 minutes: 5-6 minutes for each strategy or select one or two strategies to focus on in depth.
Using the small group discussion material requires more time)
A. Finding and Being Mentors
Many union leaders say that they had an important mentor in their life. Mentors identify new
women leaders, share their knowledge and expertise, and help develop skills.
Rose Schneiderman was Eleanor Roosevelt’s mentor. Rose not only taught Eleanor about wages
and working conditions, but she introduced her to the social unionism of the garment workers.
Eleanor Roosevelt was familiar with the craft model: improving wages and working conditions
for skilled workers, primarily white men in the American Federation of Labor. Social Unionism
included not only improved wages and working conditions, but also concern for issues of
housing, health care, and cultural life. The two women became life long friends and Eleanor
Roosevelt went on to mentor new generations of women leaders.
Handout 6: Show the photographs of the young Eleanor Roosevelt in her shirtwaist blouse and
Rose Schneiderman behind her sewing machine bring the friends and mentors to life.
Discussion Questions: Do you have a mentor? Are you a mentor to other women?
Optional Small Group Discussion—Leadership: Different Styles highlights the important
similarities and differences between three women mentors such as Frances Perkins, Rose
Schneiderman, and Eleanor Roosevelt and how they worked together.
B. Building Coalitions
Coalitions are an important source of strength and strategy within the workplace, the union hall,
and the local community.
Rose Sehneiderman was president of the Women’s Trade Union League and this was one of the
first coalitions that Eleanor Roosevelt joined. The WTUL brought together wealthy women
“allies” and working “girls” in the factories. There were many tensions, but the allies learned
about terrible working conditions and wages and were able to bring much needed publicity and
financial resources to working women’s organizing drives, strikes, and legislative initiatives.
Eleanor Roosevelt worked with new coalitions as she learned more about issues and expanded
her labor alliances particularly on civil rights issues. In 1958 she joined the National Farm Labor
Advisory Committee with A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters. She and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., both addressed the AFL-CIO Convention
in 1961. Shortly before she died she was working with Esther Peterson, of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers Union, and President Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women with
women and men from many different areas and backgrounds.
Discussion Question: Are you part of a coalition in your union or in your community?
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C. Developing New Leaders
It is not enough to educate other women and encourage them, you have to take steps to help them
achieve leadership positions. This can include helping women run for office, as well as
recommending or appointing them to positions within the union or on outside boards and
committees that give them visibility and skills. In organizing drives you identify women leaders
and ask them to be on the organizing committee, a next step in their leadership development.
Eleanor Roosevelt often did this behind the scenes and in public. One example is Frances
Perkins. ER actively encouraged Governor Roosevelt to appoint Frances Perkins as the first
woman industrial commissioner of New York State. After working together for several years,
President Roosevelt quickly appointed Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor, the first woman to
hold a cabinet position. There was no need for ER to be involved this time, but she certainly
approved.
Optional Small Group Discussion
Leadership: Different Styles highlights the important similarities and differences between three
women leaders such as Frances Perkins, Rose Schneiderman, and Eleanor Roosevelt and how
they complemented each other and worked together.
D. Identifying Women’s Priorities
A key component of organizing and leading is to learn the skill of listening to people and
observing what is going on in the workplace and in the community. It is critical to hear what
women are saying about their work lives, their families and their communities and not assume
you know the answers. In organizing drives listening to workers, especially during home visits,
is particularly important.
As a young debutant volunteering in a settlement house and working with the Consumers
League, ER learned the importance and the skill of listening to people, visiting their workplaces,
asking questions, and observing conditions. She learned about immediate needs, but also about
underlying social and structural problems. During her early days as First Lady she focused on
having women included in the New Deal programs, receiving equal pay for equal work, and
joining unions. During World War II she encouraged women’s access to jobs traditionally done
by men and championed child care programs for working mothers.
After President Roosevelt’s death in 1945, she went to the United Nations where equal pay and
an end to discrimination by race and gender were priorities. She carried these issues to her final
official position as chair of President Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women. She
gradually dropped her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, but continued to listen to
many union women who feared that the ERA did nothing to protect their hard won protections in
the low-wage often unsafe jobs where they worked.
Discussion Question: How do you currently identify women’s priorities?
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E. Communicating
Social media has been identified as a crucial new way for unions to organize workers and
energize members. Newspapers, television, and radio continue to be effective ways to educate
members and the public about workers’ issues.
Eleanor Roosevelt believed that unions must tell their stories to the public. She wrote over 8,000
syndicated My Day newspaper columns between 1935 and 1962. On average twice a month she
would talk about unions, educating the public about issues, praising union strengths, but also
criticizing the unions when they did not live up to her standards. She wrote an average of 50
magazine articles a year, testified before Congress and commissions, delivered 50 speeches
annually including major address to labor union conventions, authored 27 books and answered
thousand of letters a year.
ER also loved new technology and readily adapted to new media outlets. She had her own radio
show and she hosted one of the first Sunday morning television talk shows visiting with
politicians, diplomats, actors, and trade union leaders. There is little doubt today that Eleanor
Roosevelt would have her own web page and be on Facebook, while tweeting and blogging.
To watch ER address the merger convention of the AFL and the CIO in 1955 click here:
http://www.bofarrell.net/teaching.html. Her My Day columns are now available on-line at:
www.gwu.edu/~erpapers.
Handout 7: My Day, March 31, 1941, is an example of ER’s columns in support of unions and
the right of workers to learn about unions without fear and intimidation.
Handout 8: The Right to Join a Union is an example of a current column using ER’s words to
argue against the anti-union activities in Ohio in 2011.
Optional Small Group Discussion
Leadership: Different Decisions highlights the careful way in which Eleanor Roosevelt made
decisions about the organizations she joined and the coalitions in which she participated. Here
are examples of how she handled two different situations and communicated with the public first
with the Daughters of the American Revolution and then with her own union, The Newspaper
Guild.
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4. Outreach: Human Rights
(10 minutes)
Better wages and working conditions are the cornerstone of union organizing. For many
workers, however, being treated with dignity and respect is also crucial. Unions give people a
voice at work. The human rights approach offers another way to reach out to women not that
familiar with unions and go beyond the negative stereotypes that employers put forward about
unions as outsiders interested in taking dues money away from workers.
Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, delegate to the United Nations, and union
member believed that workers’ rights were a “fundamental element of democracy.” She
practiced what she preached and her work at the United Nations provides a case example of how
she did this. Under her guidance, and working closely with union allies, Article 23 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone, without discrimination, has the
right to a decent job, fair working conditions, a living wage, equal pay for equal work, protection
against unemployment, and the right to form and join a union.
Handout 9: The UN Photograph shows ER with a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, with the right to join a union translated into several languages. The document is available
on-line in over 300 languages at: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml.
Optional Small Group Discussion
Organizing: Human Rights offers a more detailed case example of ER’s human rights efforts
and encourages discussion of global awareness and materials that might help in reaching diverse
workforce with different languages.
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5. Close to Home: Small Group Exercise
(30 Minutes)
A. Small Group Breakout (10 minutes)
When asked, “Where after all do universal human rights begin?” Eleanor Roosevelt answered,
“In small places, close to home…the neighborhood…the school…the factory, farm, or office…
Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for
progress in the larger worlds” This exercise helps participants to take back home what they have
learned about strategies in this workshop. They should draw on the on-going activities of their
union, including organizing drives, women’s committee plans, holidays, or other special
celebrations.
First, ask participants to look at “Who is your Eleanor Roosevelt Today?” (attached) Do they
know these women? Discuss these leaders and ask them identify their union women leaders and
other community leaders they know and could involve in an organizing drive or leadership event.
Second, break into small groups of 4 or 5 participants. Each group should identify someone to
report back. Give each participant a copy of the Action Plan to read (attached). This outlines a
community event they can develop to take home with them. Assign each group to either the
Birthday or the Human Rights Day activity.
Who is your Eleanor Roosevelt Today?
Action Plan: Close to Home Activity
Two more handouts provide them with additional resources and ideas. From Handout 10 ask
them to pick an Eleanor Roosevelt quote and from Handout 11 chose a lesson learned to use as
themes in their event.
Handout 10:Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes
Handout 11:Lessons Learned From Eleanor Roosevelt
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Who Is Your Eleanor Roosevelt Today?
Here several union women leaders on the national level, as well as women leaders on the
political front. Who in your union or your community can you involve as mentors or role
models? How can you use the stories of women leaders national and local to educate others
about organizing, mobilizing, and developing women leaders?
WHO IS YOUR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT TODAY?
NATIONAL? LOCAL?
Liz Shuler, IBEW
Sec.Treas., AFL-CIO
Michelle Obama
First Lady of the US Hillary Clinton,
US Sec. of State
Arlene Holt Baker,AFSCME
Hilda Solis, Rose Ann DeMoro, Ex. Dir.
. Exec. VP, AFL-CIO
US Sec. of Labor National Nurses United
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ACTION PLAN: CLOSE TO HOME
October 11, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Birthday
October 11 is Eleanor Roosevelt’s birthday. Design an event for that week to celebrate her
birthday and highlight an issue important to women you are organizing or union women you
want to be more active.
ISSUE: What is the most pressing issue? How do you know-survey, news, instinct?
MENTORS: Are there mentors you can honor who have led on this issue?
YOUNG LEADERS: Can you identify young women leaders to speak or highlight their stories?
COALITIONS: What other community organizations can you partner with for this event:
women, civil rights, consumer, environmental, churches, immigrant organizations?
COMMUNICATION: How will communicate about the issue and the event to include the most
people: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Facebook, Twitter?
LOGISTICS: When and where will the event be held? How many participants do you expect?
FOLLOW-UP: What is your measure of success?
December 10, International Human Rights Day
December 10 is International Human Rights Day. Organize an event that week to celebrate
International Human Rights Day and highlight an issue important to women you are organizing
or union members you want to be more active.
ISSUE: What is the most pressing issue/s? How do you know-survey, news, instinct?
MENTORS: Are there mentors you can honor who have led on this issue?
YOUNG LEADERS: Can you identify young women leaders to speak or highlight their stories?
COALITIONS: What other community groups can you partner with for this event: women,
civil rights, consumer, environmental, church, immigrant organizations?
COMMUNICATION: How will you communicate about the issue and the event to include the
most people: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Facebook, Twitter?
LOGISTICS: When and where will the event be held? How many participants do you expect?
FOLLOW-UP: What is your measure of success?
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B. Report Back (15 minutes)
After ten minutes bring the small groups back together and have each reporter give a two minute
summary of their event. After they are done reporting lead a discussion about the events with
the full group.
6. Closing (5 minutes)
Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most admired and at the same time most vilified women on the
twentieth century. Women today have much to learn from Eleanor Roosevelt about organizing,
leadership, workplace issues, and the labor movement. She believed that women would
eventually find their place in the leadership of the union movement and would some day not
need separate organizations. That goal has not been reached, but one of the lessons to take away
today is found in her closing remarks to the last CIO convention: “We can’t just talk, we have
got to act…And we must see improvement for masses of people, not for the little group on top.”
We hope that each of you leave here today wanting to know more about this remarkable woman,
who contributed to the American labor movement, but with the intent of seeing if there are not
more of her words and actions that can be used to inspire and activate women across the country
and around the world—workers rights are human rights.
Thank You!
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