Abstract
Jene Wilson grew up in a union family, and when she was 16 had her first experience working for a union, the AFLCIO. She describes her experience working for the union as a young girl. Later in life she became part of a teacher's union and became very involved in that. She discusses her involvement in the union, as well as some of the gender issues that she found working for the union.
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Interviewee
Wilson, Jene (interviewee)
Project
History 695
Date
3-4-2012
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
9 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Jene Wilson Interview, 04 March 2012" (2012). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 695004.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/168
Transcript
Jene Wilson [00:00:03] All right, my name is Jene Wilson. Today is March 4, 2012.
Stephanie Kocian [00:00:14] This is the oral history interview for union women. And so we’ll start with. How old were you when you first went to work?
Jene Wilson [00:00:25] I think 16. I’m pretty sure I was 16 when I went to work at the union. That would not have been my first exposure to being at the office or to helping with stuff like that, but that’s when I officially started to work there at the AFL–CIO.
Stephanie Kocian [00:00:42] When you officially started working there, what was it like working for the union?
Jene Wilson [00:00:52] Well, at the time, because Aunt Joan and Mom worked for unions, you know, it seemed like regular, normal stuff to me. That was what you were supposed to do. That seemed, you know, that was what we did. Yeah, and that was what we did. And it was a good place to be. I mean, people were really, really, everybody was really nice. When I look back, I realize, you know, if you’re talking about women in unions, that they did say, you know, talk a lot about girls. And I did a lot of the, you know, run out to do this, go deliver that kind of stuff. But I was a kid, so that was fine, you know, that was fine to do that.
Stephanie Kocian [00:01:31] Do you think you might have been treated differently if you worked for a private employer or any type of employer that was not a union?
Jene Wilson [00:01:39] Treated differently? I’m gonna guess it probably would have been the same at that point. I mean, see, I would have been 16 in 1967. So, I mean, girls and women were still treated like girls in those days, so incredibly. But yes, I don’t think it would have been any different at all. And in fact, when I graduated from college in ’72, I had an employer who was still a private employer who was still calling me a girl and told me what I could and couldn’t wear to work. So I don’t think it would have been any different at all.
Stephanie Kocian [00:02:16] Did they tell you what you could and couldn’t wear to work at the union?
Jene Wilson [00:02:19] No, no, I don’t think so. I don’t think they did. I don’t remember anything like that at all. I mean, I guess I probably dressed appropriately. I mean, I’m guessing I wore skirts or dress pants or something. Although in ’67, I mostly had skirts. So I probably mostly wore skirts and dresses to work, you know, coming from a Catholic girls school.
Stephanie Kocian [00:02:43] Did you join the secretaries union, the clerical union?
Jene Wilson [00:02:47] No, I think I did. I’m pretty sure I was part of that. I was a kid, but I’m pretty sure that I did. I think I remember paying dues to that. Yeah. Yeah.
Stephanie Kocian [00:02:56] And how did you feel being part of the secretaries’ union?
Jene Wilson [00:03:00] Oh, I thought it was great. I mean, you know, everybody in our family was part of a union, so I wanted to do that, too. It was totally fine by me. I mean, it seemed like what you were supposed to do.
Stephanie Kocian [00:03:15] When you became an adult, what was your contact with unions?
Jene Wilson [00:03:19] Well, when I started to work, when I became a teacher and started to work at a district that had a union, I got involved immediately. The year after I was hired, there was a strike, and I got involved in the strike. So I’d only been there a year and- less than a year actually when the strike happened, because that’s, you know, that’s what I thought was the right thing to do. So. And I’ve been doing it ever since. And that would have been in ’73, 1973, when I started doing that.
Stephanie Kocian [00:03:56] So, I mean, when you were as a teacher and you were part of a union as a teacher, did you recall and go back to your experience and what you may have learned from working for a union, for organizing? Did you learn any organizing tips and what striking would be like, or what. What did you learn from actually working for the union before you were a union?
Jene Wilson [00:04:18] I sort of knew what to expect. And I know a lot of other people. When we had our first strike back in 74, and I know a lot of other people didn’t. They had never been through a strike and they were very worried about it. But having worked at the AFL-CIO and watched mom and Aunt Joan work in those places, a strike didn’t seem like a scary thing to me when a lot of other people were really scared about it. And then as I got more involved, yeah, I have done some organizing with the teachers union, and in fact, the group I belong to, I was one of the founding members of the statewide organization for people who work with special ed kids, and that was an organizing thing. So, yeah, I mean, I went back to what I had learned as a kid and what I saw as a kid seemed like, that’s how you do it.
Stephanie Kocian [00:05:12] Okay, so did you- Obviously, you didn’t participate in negotiations when you were a teenager.
Jene Wilson [00:05:20] No.
Stephanie Kocian [00:05:20] It led to organizing negotiations as an adult. Can you tell me how negotiations went? Did you draw on your experience in that and how your negotiations as a teacher went?
Jene Wilson [00:05:32] Well, I think when I first started, when I first became on the negotiations team, and when I first became involved, at the time, there still seemed, I think, because I was in a Teachers union, I was probably lucky in a way, in terms of roles for men and women, because there are so many women in teaching. You know, there tend to be more women than men in teaching. However, in the leadership roles, it was still mostly men because of the fact that a lot of women, you know, took time off from teaching when they would have kids or, you know, stayed home with their kids. And so the leadership positions were still mostly men when I started with the union. But, it eventually changed. There wasn’t any- there wasn’t any overt discrimination, but people were always surprised when I knew anything, you know, as a girl. They were surprised when I knew about unions. And I remember one time when I was explaining about why we should have, why the teachers who worked with kids with disabilities should have their own organization within the larger union, and one guy, like, practically fell over that I knew what I was talking about. So, I think there was still in the back of people’s minds, but they could say it outright because it was mostly women in teaching.
Stephanie Kocian [00:06:53] So do you think that your experience as a teenager working with women in unions just kind of led you to a more progressive role as an adult?
Jene Wilson [00:07:02] Oh, I’m sure. I’m sure that. Yeah, I’m sure that’s true. As you know, Mom and Aunt Joan were role models for that, and other people, too. I mean, other people that were at the unions. Yeah, but.
Stephanie Kocian [00:07:15] Okay, so do you feel that unions helped you move into leadership positions?
Jene Wilson [00:07:21] Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I think that because it’s a union, you expect to be treated equally and you expect to be judged on your merits. And I think that I sort of expected that. Yeah, I do think that. I think having watched how unions work, that I just sort of figured I would be part of one.
Stephanie Kocian [00:07:45] And this applied more to you during the ’70s with the upcoming. With the feminist movement in the ’70s, did you connect your union work with the feminist movement?
Jene Wilson [00:07:56] Well, they both sort of went together at the same time, and it would not have occurred to me that somebody could tell me I couldn’t do that, that I couldn’t be a leader in a leadership position, you know, that would not have. That would not have gone over big. So I think that the sensibility was already there. The sensibility for that was already there.
Stephanie Kocian [00:08:15] Is there anything else that you want to add to this about your working with the unions and starting as a youngster working for unions? Sum it up for me?
Jene Wilson [00:08:26] I think it gives you a sense of what’s right, and it gives you a sense of, of wanting to do the right thing. And wanting to look out for people who can’t look out for themselves. I think being in a union does that for you, but it also gives you a sense of solidarity and working together. You know how to work together. And you know that it’s important that you’re not out there on your own, and you shouldn’t be out there on your own. And everybody working together is always a better thing, so. All right.
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