Labor leader sees bigger role for women
Liz Shuler, 51, is the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO. Before taking office in August, after the death of the previous president, Richard Trumka, she had been secretary-treasurer, the organization’s second-ranking official, since 2009.
How did you get your start in the labor movement?
I came up through the IBEW [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers]. My father was a union member and worked for PGE [an Oregon utility]. Clerical workers were not in a union, and my mother and I were organizing them. PGE was a study in the difference a union can make: Power linemen were respected and made good wages, and nonunion clerical workers were not listened to and didn’t have a voice.
Later, Enron bought the utility. Employees were encouraged to invest their retirement savings in Enron stock. When Enron’s fraud was revealed and bankruptcy was imminent, employees could not sell their stock. My father lost his pension, so that is truly what drives me to this day.
For much of your career, you were a young woman among much older men. What was that like?
Very challenging. When you’re the only woman in a room full of power linemen and older men, it’s challenging to have your voice heard and respected. I had to get creative in how I got things done. I also built a bench of mentors that I could lean on. All my mentors were men. I was always kind of assimilating back then. I have been passionate about women’s issues at work throughout my career, but it wasn’t until I came to the AFL-CIO, frankly, that I opened up and really stepped into what it’s like to be a woman leader.
When you talk about building a bench of mentors, how did you do that?
My first mentor was Greg Teeple, an electrician from our sister local. He had experience lobbying the [Oregon] Legislature and I was new to it. He taught me a lot in terms of how to open doors at the Legislature and build relationships. He sticks in my mind because he saw me for who I was and took me at face value. In 1997, I was dispatched to California to campaign against an anti-union initiative. The IBEW president and secretary-treasurer came in and I worked with them on the ground. I think they saw some potential in me, and a year later, I was hired in the Washington office. That is where I met my next mentor, the IBEW political director. Then the union president at the time, Ed Hill, took a chance on me and made me his chief of staff.
You say you prepared for running the AFL-CIO your entire life. How did you prepare?
Being prepared is a bit different than seeing yourself in a role like this. I’ve always believed that if you do the work and you work hard, the work will speak for itself. So when I was 23 years old working for the local union, I never saw myself ever in any kind of leadership position. I was a worker bee behind the scenes. Being prepared means you exercised leadership in different ways, rolled up your sleeves and actually did the work versus looking at it from on high. The IBEW covers seven industries, so it was like a microcosm of the AFL-CIO; before I even got to the AFL-CIO, I was working with people in railroads, electric utilities, telecommunications, broadband, construction.
What advice would you have for young women making careers in big organizations today?
Try everything. And don’t be afraid to fail. I have lived my entire career in a state of discomfort in the sense that I was kind of pushing myself beyond what I thought my limits were. Women often feel like they’re underqualified for a new role and talk themselves out of it. We should not do that because inevitably there is a man standing right next to you who is less qualified than you are but is willing to step up and say, “I was born for this role.”
I also would encourage young women to get lots of different experiences. I’ve spent my whole career in the labor movement, but I’ve done so many different things. I was an organizer at the local union, then dipped my toe into politics. I was researching and writing sexual harassment policies when Anita Hill was testifying before the Senate. I was building the IBEW website. So when the Washington job opened up, I was like, maybe I should try that. I took a leap of faith, knowing I could find mentors to guide me. Don’t think you will do it on your own. You’re going to need the support of a lot of people on the way.
How significant is it that a woman runs the AFL-CIO now?
Extremely significant, because we are half the workforce and will be half the labor movement by 2025. Women are on the rise. Women predominate the emerging sectors of the economy. Women have been on the front lines of this pandemic and are finally being seen and recognized and appreciated for their work. It’s absolutely time to reflect that in our leadership at all levels: the AFL-CIO, local unions, city councils and legislatures.
We are seeing a burst of union activism, at John Deere, Amazon and elsewhere. Is labor at an inflection point?
I’m glad you asked because we have been so inspired by the courage of almost 100,000 workers that have either gone on strike or have authorized a strike in dozens and dozens of workplaces across the country in different geographies and different industries this year: distillery workers in Kentucky, nurses at Kaiser, coal miners in Alabama. When we look back 10 years from now, I think we will say, “This was the time where things really opened up,” because people are seeing unions in a different way. Public sentiment is the highest it’s been in 50 years: 68% of the public supports unions, including 77% of young people. This is an inflection point. And I am so excited because we have unlimited potential right now. The question is, are we going to grab it?
Some people say technology and automation deskill labor and depress wages, but you think technology can strengthen workers’ voices and train them for the new economy.
I believe that the changes that we’re seeing in work because of technology are going to be the next frontier for the labor movement. Because of it, workers will be looking for a place to both upskill and find that next good job, but also have a voice in determining how technology will be implemented in their workplaces. In the hospitality sector, the UNITE HERE union was able to negotiate protections for not only how technology is used, but also, if workers are displaced, they have a fund to train people up.