11/10: The Role of Labor Unions in the Struggle for LGBT Equality

The Role of Labor Unions in the Struggle for LGBT Equality

Thursday, November 10
Pre-Conference Institute 9:00-6:30 PM
Room 207
Organize Out: Working with Labor Unions
Hear from organizers who have brought
the Labor and LGBT communities
together, forging lasting bonds that cross
intersections of class, race, sexual
orientation and gender identity/expression.
Learn how to decipher and speak the
language of labor. Attendees can discover
powerful new strategies in their work.
Presenters: Howard Wallace, Vice-Pres.,
San Francisco Labor Council,
Pride at Work (PAW); Pearl Smith,
AFSCME, PAW; Jeremy Bishop, Natl.
Program Dir., PAW; Joe Darby, OPEIU,
PAW; Sian Lewis, Membership
Coordinator, PAW; Jo Kenny,
Development Dir., PAW
Friday, November 11
Plenary Session
10:45 AM West Hall
Mary Kay Henry is Exec. Vice-President
of Service Employees International
Union (SEIU). In 25 years with the
nation’s largest healthcare union, she
has helped more than half a million
workers negotiate better working and
patient care conditions as well as shape
health care policy. Mary Kay is a
founding member of SEIU’s Lavender
Caucus.
Friday, November 11
Workshop 6:00-7:30 PM Calvin Simmons
Ballroom 4
Coalition Building –
An Urgent Imperative
New opportunities have opened up for the
LGBT movement despite, and partly,
because- we are favored targets of the
ultra-right. Examples will be provided of
how to find common ground with activists
from labor, people of color, tenant groups,
senior, etc. without compromising any
goals of the LGBT movement. The aim is
to learn how to build progressive
coalitions.
Presenters: Howard Wallace, a
founder of Pride at Work, AFL-CIO with
a 50-year history of leadership in anti-war,
human rights, labor and social
justice movements.; Andy Wong,
Coalition Mgr., Asian Equality and Dir.
of Development and Communications at
Community United Against Violence
(CUAV). A graduate of Swarthmore
College currently focused on support for
marriage equality within the nation’s
Asian Pacific Islander communities;
Robert Haaland, veteran tenant and
progressive activist, former Pres., Harvey
Milk LGBT Democratic Club and current
union organizer for SEIU 790 and first
transgender candidate to win public
election in local history when he was
elected to the Democratic County
Central Committee in 2002. Both
Haaland and Wallace have been named
“Local Heroes” by the San Francisco
Bay Guardian.
Friday, November 11
Labor Solidarity
Reception
8:00-10:00 PM Room 207
Please join Pride at Work, the National
Latina(o) Coalition for Justice and SEIU as
we honor the United Farm Workers union
for their courageous support for the
Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage
Protection Act, which would have ended
marriage discrimination in California. Help
us celebrate our mutual support.
Saturday, November 12
What Does the Labor
Split Mean for Us?
Workshop 6:00-7:30 PM Room 204
In recent years organized labor has
emerged as an increasingly important ally
in support of LGBT equality in the
workplace and beyond. What does the split
between the AFL-CIO, on the one hand and
the SEIU, Teamsters and others mean for
the LGBT movement, progressives/liberals
and electoral politics in the U.S.? Activists
working for LGBT rights and labor rights
at the local and state level will describe the
impact of the split on their work.
Moderator: Sean Cahill, Director,
Task Force Policy Institute, New York
Presenters: Sandra Telep, Pride at
Work, Washington, DC; Brian Polejes,
SEIU Local 535, California; Christine
Chavez Delgado, Equality California
For more information
call 415-861-0318

Special Sessions of the
Creating Change
Conference
November 10-12
Oakland Marriot City Center
1001 Broadway @ 11th Street
Oakland
A U S P I C E S
Western Region
Lavender Caucus
Pride at Work,
AFL-CIO