Portside

As another International Women's Day rolls around March 8, women workers are still facing down infuriatingly familiar challenges—including the persistence of workplace sexual harassment, especially for those of us working low-wage jobs.

Unions took up the cause of sexual harassment in a concerted way in 1979, when the term was first coined and publicized through a barrage of speak-outs, pamphlets, and trainings by women activists.

We reprint here a greatly shortened version of a training for officers and stewards, developed by United Electrical Workers staffers David Cohen and Carol Lambiase, now retired.

The complete training notes, including additional situations and answers to the questions, are available here. And a workshop on this topic will be given at the Labor Notes Conference April 4-6 in Chicago.

How do union leaders deal with and educate some of our members who are less than perfect people? What are our legal and moral obligations? Our bedrock is that we are for unity of all workers.

We know what to do when a member of management harasses a member. A grievance is filed. Charges with a government agency may be, as well.

It is more difficult when a member harasses another member. We were brought up in the union movement to feel it is wrong for the union to “turn in” a member to management. We instinctively don’t like the idea of management “disciplining” workers, as if we were children.

We are taught that our role is to defend workers from management’s discipline.

But we also know we need unity to fight the employer. If one section of the membership feels the union won’t protect them, even from other workers, then our unity is in danger. And we know it is not the victims of harassment who are endangering our unity.

Task 1. In your group discuss cases of member-to-member harassment in your local. Did they involve sexual harassment, racial harassment, or just one member harassing another?

Task 2. Read worksheets on what constitutes racial and sexual harassment, the duty of fair representation, proper grievance handling, a union committee to investigate and educate, should the union “turn in” the offender to management? and what to say to a harasser.

Task 3. Each group will then take one of three situations (see Situation 1) and answer the questions.

THE UNION’S DUTY

When a member comes to the union to complain about another union member, then the union has an obligation to do something.

First, because we are opposed to harassment of any kind, and especially racial or sexual harassment. We believe in equality and unity.

Second, the employer has an obligation under law to provide a safe and healthy workplace. This includes a workplace free from racial or sexual harassment and free from the fear of violence.

The employer has the obligation to enforce rules and make discipline to keep the workplace free from intimidation and harassment. It has an obligation to make sure everyone knows that racial or sexual harassment is illegal and won’t be tolerated. It also has an obligation to provide education so that all workers know what constitutes harassment.

So, legally, if a worker comes to us with a complaint of harassment, then our obligation (besides the union’s obligation to help a member) is to make the employer live up to its responsibility under the law, to provide a safe workplace.

A SPECIAL COMMITTEE

The union may want to set up a special committee where members can report instances of harassment. This committee will have the responsibility to investigate complaints and to help educate members on why harassment is wrong.

The committee should be representative of the workforce: men, women, Black, white, etc.

The committee can take complaints and investigate and then make recommendations to the grievance committee.

The committee can also lay down the law in cases where it is clear that a member is harassing another member. They can explain to the member why what they are doing is wrong, why they can be disciplined for doing it, and that the union cannot tolerate this behavior.

When the committee is conducting its investigation it must be sensitive to the feelings of the victim. The victim often doesn’t want details gossiped about in the workplace, or doesn’t want to endlessly repeat what happened before lots of people. The committee must treat details as confidential and the victim with respect.

TURN THEM IN?

Should the union “turn in” the offender? We would of course like to avoid this. We would like for offenders to admit what they were doing was wrong and apologize. We would have to tell the offender that any repeat offenses would force the union to demand that management take action to protect the victim.

Using this union warning approach depends on how severe the harassment has been, whether violence or threatened violence is involved, how long it has been going on, and whether the victim is willing to go along with this solution.

We should never make the victim the villain. This can happen if people start putting pressure on the victim not to “press charges.” “Oh, don’t say anything or poor Pete will get in trouble.” Poor old Pete is a grownup and if guilty must pay.

We should also reject solutions that make the victim pay, such as transferring to another department or shift. Make the harasser suffer, not the victim.

It may be that the only solution is to make the employer take action against the harasser. If the harasser refuses to stop, or if the actions were such that the other worker feels threatened, then “turning in” the harasser may be the only solution.

In doing this we are defending a union member and defending the unity of our union.

What should the steward say to a harasser? Let him know that the behavior must stop immediately. Tell him that such harassment is against the law and will not be tolerated.

He may not have intended to harass and may be shocked and hurt to hear of the allegation. But what matters is not the harasser’s intent but the behavior.

A steward can tell a harasser that the union may not be able to support him if he continues the behavior, which is in violation of union conduct codes.

It might be appropriate to suggest that the harasser attend education or counseling sessions. As a recourse of last resort, this could be negotiated with management and made a requirement of his continued employment.

Situation 1

Joe and Sara, both union members, went out on several dates. After a month Sara decided not to go out with Joe any more. Joe has taken this badly. In her presence he says rude and crude things about her to other men. He grabs her and makes crude remarks. He continues to call her at home. She keeps telling Joe to leave her alone. Sara comes to the steward and asks him to make Joe stop harassing her, or she is going to management.

The steward talks to Joe and tells him to quit bothering Sara. Joe says it is none of the steward’s business and to leave him alone.

What should the steward and the union do?

What should the union do if after talking to Joe again, he continues to bother Sara?

Is this a violation of the civil rights law?

If Joe gets disciplined should the union defend him?

If the union does nothing for Sara can it be held liable by the NLRB or by the courts?

RESOURCES FOR WOMEN WORKERS

Stopping Sexual Harassment, Labor Notes’ 1992 guide, is still one of the most complete manuals out there. It has sections on member-to-member harassment, women of color, defending yourself, the legal route, and “an unhelpful union.” Order at labornotes.org/store.

KC Wagner of the Worker Institute at Cornell University frequently does “train-the-trainer” workshops for unions, showing how to lead an interactive class on addressing and preventing sexual harassment, within the context of building union solidarity and promoting workplace respect. Contact her at kcw8@cornell.edu.

From the boardroom on down, women still get paid less than men—but at this point what’s depressing most women’s wages is less the gap from men and more the gap from the top 10%. Economist Heidi Shierholz lays out eight priorities to boost standards for working women in 2014.

The half-hour film “Union Women, Union Power: From the Shopfloor to the Streets” (available on YouTube), directed and produced by the Young Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), highlights five union women and their fights for workplace democracy. The committee aims to use the film to introduce younger women to the labor movement, with women leaders as role models. Funding was provided by the Berger-Marks Foundation.

The days are long past when the job of the union women’s committee was to provide refreshments. A report from the Berger-Marks Foundation looks at what women’s committees are doing today and what impact they have. Download Women’s Committees in Worker Organizations: Still Making a Difference at bergermarks.org.

You might not want to actually hand your mother a pretend check on Mother’s Day, but the info on this site is interesting. The salary.com/mom-paycheck website breaks out the work hours of average moms at various tasks and calculates what they would get paid if they were being paid. Stay-at-home moms work an average of 94 hours a week and would collect a “mom salary” of $113,586 a year. Mothers with jobs do an average of 58 hours per week in household and childcare duties on top of their paid jobs.