Pride At Work
By
Martha Grevatt
Los Angeles
Pride At Work, the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Labor Organization, held its National Executive
Board meeting in Los Angeles the week before the AFL-CIO
convention. This was the first board meeting since PAW hired an
executive director, Kipukai Kuali'i. Kuali'i had previously
been PAW's co-chair and a leading organizer of the Southern
California regional chapter.
PAW is now funded by the AFL-CIO as a fully recognized
constituency group, like the Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Latin American
Council for Labor Advancement, and others. This funding has
allowed for a higher level of organizing and outreach. New
chapters are popping up all over the country: Florida, Texas,
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, and Wisconsin are among the
states where chapters are just getting off the ground.
Meanwhile, there are more chapters in California and New
England than ever before.
PAW members are also feeling strong from a number of
victories.
In the face of a struggle centered in San Francisco, United
Airlines has agreed to provide domestic-partner benefits. The
Big Three auto makers have added sexual orientation
non-discrimination language in their new UAW contracts--the
first such victory across an entire industry--and are at least
considering domestic-partner benefits. The Massachusetts
Federation of Labor just established a policy of
non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and
gender identity/gender expression, and the California
Federation expects to do the same.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page