Back in Tally!

Starting my experience soon…

By Kiley Irizarry

(This photo may seem irrelevant but I have a quick side story before I start; I saw this movie with my friend while I was back home, and it unexpectedly became about union organizing in the middle so I started geeking. Great film 10/10, would recommend and I wish it was an academic source so I could cite it in my research project)

I have not yet began my experience with the union, but I will be beginning next week starting with my meeting at the office with the union President. This Friday, I arrived back in Tallahassee from my home town in West Broward after a long journey with a delayed bus, and I am so excited to be back! Even though my experience has not officially started, engaging with the community that my CBI (female teachers in Tallahassee) has been wonderful. 

When I came back, I went to a volunteer event with my past internship where I got to speak to a couple of teachers, and I even got a couple of contacts for interviews for my research project! Furthermore, while I was at home, after speaking with the first lady of my church about my plans for the summer, she told me that she used to be a union steward for the Miami-Dade County Teachers’ Union! I will be interviewing her as well, even though she is outside of my immediate CBI so I can get a perspective of teachers union organizers outside of my immediate CBI. My experience hasn’t started officially, but I am already proud of the progress I am making with obtaining contacts for the research aspect of Global Scholars. Best thing, this all happened without me forcing it, and occurred with just engaging with former teachers on a casual basis, and they are the direct stakeholders in this issue. 

These interactions made me analyze my connections to my research issue of union organizing in female dominated spaces. The most dominant connection I have, and the reason why I wanted to research this topic in the first place was because of my parents, specifically my mom. When I was younger, both of my parents were involved in the unions for their sector with my dad being a firefighter and my mom a nurse. My mom was very active in her union, which was a very small union, and she was targeted, harassed, and faced discrimination by the overwhelmingly male management and other female nurses who became influenced by the overall anti-union sentiment in South Florida that’s rooted in the red scare. This led my mom to become disillusioned and she eventually gave up organizing because of the mental toll. This never happened to my dad, and it led me to become curious to research how gender plays a role in union organizing difficulties. This is my immediate connection, however, I have realized that my interests in feminism has connected me to the topic of unions during my time in Tallahassee. The Vice Chair of my former internship with the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls is the lead organizer for the Florida Education Association, one of the biggest unions in the state. My interest in feminism has led me to the Women’s Student Union where I am Political Education Director. 

Based on my historical research of the topic, unions and feminism have an interesting history where many labor unions were shepherded by women. The main perspectives explored in the research are these historical perspectives, and only a few focus on female dominated unions in the modern era. The ones that I have found mainly focus on the perspectives of nurses and teachers in union friendly states like California and New York. I, so far, have not been able to find perspectives from union organizers in states as hostile as Florida, so I am excited to represent that community in my research project. 

The relationships I have built with the teachers I have met, and the current one I have with Leon Teachers President I hope will last after this project. In fact, the Leon Teachers President has already invited me to a couple of site visits when the school year starts because of my overall interest in unions. I hope the relationships I build will continue on after Global Scholars summer is over because this truly is a topic I care so much about, especially as laws continue to work against unions. I want to understand how passionate workers, like my mom, who want to make these female dominated workspaces can get pushed out, so solutions can be found and no one has to give up their fight.