The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO, is honoring Women’s History Month this March, reaffirming our commitment to achieving full equality for women in the workplace and celebrating the vital role women play in improving labor standards for all working people.
This year is proving a difficult one for women as hard-won federal protections are threatened and the powerful are newly emboldened to silence women's voices. History teaches us only women can lead us out of moments like this — and that nothing threatens patriarchy more than a unionized woman.
“Women's history is not just about the famous names we learn in textbooks. It's about the millions of women whose everyday work, leadership and courage are often unseen and have shaped our communities, workplaces and society,” said Stephanie Burkey, an OPEIU Local 30 steward at Kaiser Permanente. "Women who advocate for themselves are often unfairly labeled as rude. Let this be your reminder to keep standing up for yourself. You have the right to be heard, the right to be treated with respect and professionalism and the right to set clear boundaries.”
Throughout the 20th century, women such as Dolores Huerta, Frances Perkins and Addie L. Wyatt were central to winning wage increases, basic labor protections and collective bargaining rights for women, immigrants and all workers across the United States. Not only did they contribute immensely to achieving these concrete rights but also helped universalize the notion that all humans deserve equal rights.
The legacy of these historic trailblazers is kept alive today by OPEIU members who stand up for their rights daily and refuse to accept a status quo that silences their voices as women and working people.
Union women today are following in their footsteps and continuing to make history as we keep up the fight for social and economic justice for women. The wage gap must finally be eradicated and attacks on laws that protect women must be forcefully confronted. We must guarantee paid family leave and assistance with child care. And women in the workplace must be protected from the rampant harassment that leads to sexual violence, constant fear of retaliation for speaking up and job insecurity.
"Women’s History Month means recognizing the women in the labor movement who stood shoulder to shoulder with their co-workers to win fair pay, safe workplaces and respect on the job," said Kyra Williams, an OPEIU Local 8 member employed at IBEW Local 483. “Unions aren’t just about contracts. They’re about people. They’re about making sure working families are treated with dignity, paid fairly and protected on the job.”
This Women’s History Month, let us celebrate the women who continue to strengthen OPEIU through their organizing and activism and remember what women have overcome in the past when considering what is possible in our collective future.
In solidarity,
Team OPEIU