Linda chavez thompson biography
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She served on the Executive Council Committees on Full Participation, International Affairs, Article XX Appeals and Housing. Her message reaches laborers because she is one of them. His reasoning was that education was not as important for a girl, since she would eventually marry and become a housewife. 70.
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1995, p.
I was determined to prove traditional society wrong." Not only did she carve her own success in American society, but in doing so she has paved the way for hundreds of thousands of workers—perhaps millions—to succeed on their own terms with the guarantee of fair treatment and pay for their hard work.
Periodicals
Hispanic, September 1998, p.
Prior to moving to Washington, D.C. in November 1995, Ms. Chavez-Thompson resided in San Antonio, Texas. She began with the Austin Local as an international representative. "We've lost a couple generations of children who don't realize what their parents have done to build the workplace in America. However, in 1973 she moved to the San Antonio Local 2399 and accepted a less demanding position as an assistant business manager.
She rose from the organizing ranks of her union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), to become the first person of color elected to an executive office of the AFL-CIO. Forty hours a week didn't just come automatically.
Following her marriage, she left the cotton fields for cleaning houses and entered the work world of minimum wage. Lack of formal education did not prevent her from ascending the ranks of labor and becoming not only a role model, but also a powerful force in the reinvigoration of a labor movement that has been waning since the 1950s.
As the only bilingual staff member, she soon took on more responsibilities and began to serve as the union representative for the Spanish-speaking membership. When Chavez-Thompson talks labor, people listen. Growing up Chavez-Thompson was told repeatedly that a poor Hispanic woman like herself would never make it in American society. News and World Report, "Well, that did it.
News and World Report. In one instance she took up the cause of 33 community college workers who were facing job losses because they spoke about financial abuse by a handful of trustees. She is the first woman and the first minority to hold this position. Not only in her ability to take a hands-on approach, but also because of her first-hand knowledge of what it means to work hard just to stay at the poverty level.
Not only was Texas business hostile to unions and labor organizing, but government employees—the very workers AFSCME represented—were denied union status under Texas law.