By Dawn Wolfe
LANSING – How can a Michigan lesbian or gay worker protect him or herself from being fired because of his or her sexual orientation?
Join a major union.
At least some of the major unions, like the Communications Workers of America, have voted to include language in their contracts that prohibits employers from firing a worker based on his or her sexual orientation.
"Virtually, the only protection for the LGBT community right now is being in a unionized environment that has that [contract] language," said Michigan Pride At Work co-President Gloria, whose last name has been withheld by her request.
That's better protection than is currently afforded by Michigan law. And it is one of the reasons that the Board of Directors of Michigan's re-formed chapter of Pride At Work are able to be union, gay – and proud of both.
Pride At Work, both nationally and here in Michigan, is the newest constituency group of the AFL-CIO.
According Gloria, "[The] AFL-CIO's position is that there is no discrimination of any kind, [allowed] including the gay community – which is important, and paramount, and that's how we have moved forward, and that's the impact we have within our unions."
Re-formed since August of 2003, Michigan's Pride At Work chapter was thrown into the fight against Proposal 2. Despite the passage of the anti-family proposal, Pride At Work has not given up the fight to protect and expand domestic partner benefits.
"I hope to take a lead role in trying to convince the unions, the individual unions, to push the issue," said Dan Sturgis, co-Vice President, during an interview of the Michigan Pride At Work board, headquartered in Lansing.
Other goals include increasing the organization's visibility, and thus its effectiveness, and eventually encouraging non-union LGBT employees to help unionize their workplaces in order to enjoy the job protection that union membership provides.
The board's goals are a tall order. While all of them agree that the national union leadership is supportive of LGBT rights, they also all agree that support is more mixed at the local level.
"It depends on your different union, your president, your elected officials that are heading up your individual locals as to how supportive they are," said Joe Darby, Michigan Pride At Work's other co-President.
The board had a similar response to the question of whether or not their unions are willing to fight for domestic partnership benefits after the passage of the Proposal 2.
"I think at the local level, and at the national level, there's going to be two different levels of interest in what they're willing to stand firm on and what they're willing to fight for," said Darby.
"I think Solidarity House as a whole is behind us, but they won't publicly say it – but they will say it internally," Sturgis added. "The union is a big dinosaur, just like a lot of our Fortune 500 companies. And they're afraid to take that jump, and since we're one of the newest constituency groups, actually we are the newest one on the block, we have to fight with that."
However, the mixed level of support from different locals, and different union members, on domestic partner benefits has only strengthened the board's resolve.
"We need to educate on a grassroots level," said Recording Secretary Renee McCammon. "The Bush campaign has instilled such deep-seated fear in people that we're trying to take something away from people, but we're not. We're just trying to add to our lives. Instead of taking away from the straight community, [we're] just trying to add something that they already have."
"I think what's difficult for people to understand is that … moving forward progressively is sometimes two steps forward, and one step back. If people can understand that and not get frustrated – to win the war, it's little battles. And sometimes you have to lose a battle to gain one and to win the war," said Gloria.
Remembering the "T" in LGBT
As a part of their efforts to promote LGBT equality in the workplace, Pride At Work actively assists transgender workers.
"We've been very involved at the national level, and we're starting to get involved on our local level," said Sturgis. "The national board has a couple transgender people, so nationally we're doing really good."
"I see a lot going on in the future with the contracts changing to include that (gender identity and expression)," he added.
Joe Darby added that his local Pride At Work chapter had just assisted an individual in transitioning while on the job.
Getting Involved
All Michigan LGBT workers, union and non-union alike, are welcome to join Pride At Work. For information on becoming a member or contacting an established Pride At Work group in your area, contact Dan Sturgis at 248-622-8981 or [email protected] or visit www.prideatwork.org.
