Walk In My Shoes
What’s Your Story? Fill out the form below.
In 150 words or less—accompanied by a picture of you at work…Help us walk in your shoes. We’re open to all union members, active, retired, laid off.
“We want rank and file members to help us to illustrate the rich, diverse tapestry of hard working men and women who make up the American labor movement. They are proud of their work and proud of the contributions they make to their communities,” explains Union Label Department President Richard Kline. “We want to demonstrate to American consumers and businesses that union labor gives added value in quality and reliability to products and services that are bought and sold.”
The pictures and stories we get will be published in the Label Letter and posted on the Department’s website—and perhaps in posters and other promotional materials. E-mail a Walk in Your Shoes to: unionlabel@unionlabel.org; or send by regular mail to:
Walk In My Shoes,
c/o Union Label & Service Trades Dept. (AFL-CIO),
815 16th St. NW,
Washington, DC 20005
What's your story?
Past Walk in My Shoes Submissions
Purnell Packer, Hotel Worker — UNITE HERE Local 7 Member
When I started in the hotel industry I was in my twenties and I worked for nonunion hotels. My first job wasn’t the best, I worked there two or three years and eventually they let me go saying it was because of cutbacks. I had never been fired before, I was in shock....
Manny Vargas, School Bus Driver — TWU Local 252
After I completed my duties in the Armed Forces, U.S. Navy, I immediately joined the nation’s workforce. I believe that among the most important responsibility in our lives is work, for ourselves and for society at large. Over the years I have performed public safety...
Walk in my shoes: Wendy Karkos – IAMAW Local S6 Bath Iron Works – Sandblaster
In May, it will be a year that I’ve been with Bath Iron Works as a sandblaster. I came in as a general laborer. It’s an L4 position where you assist other trades. You learn plasma cutting and torch cutting and grinding. You assist other trades and you learn a...
Walk in my shoes –School Bus Driver Renita Smith, AFSCME Local 2250
Renita Smith, a school bus driver in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and a member of ACE-AFSCME Local 2250, was honored recently by students and school system officials as a hero after she saved 20 children when her bus caught fire September 12. Smith, a 17-year...
Walk in my shoes USW Member Wins National Jefferson Award for Helping Domestic Violence Survivors
A United Steelworkers local union member from Texas was named one of the top volunteers in the nation for leading a project to provide scholarships for survivors of domestic violence to study for family-sustaining employment at union-represented oil refineries....
Walk in my shoes–Meet AFGE’s Mr. 300,000, Matthew McDearmon, AFGE BOP
When Matthew McDearmon sat down at his new employee orientation at the Bureau of Prisons, he wasn’t expecting to become an official in his local union – much less the 300,000th member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). McDearmon, an Air Force...
Walk in my shoes Marcus Eubanks, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 370 Flint, Michigan
I was in my daughter’s kindergarten class a couple of years ago and I was talking to another parent at the school who happened to be an electrician and an IBEW member. He was telling me about the benefits of being a union member. He knew I was a welder and suggested I look into apprenticeship at UA.
Walk in my shoes–Richard Cucarese, Steelworker and USW Local 4889 Rapid Response Coordinator, Fairless Hills, PA
After a brief stint in college, I worked for a non-union employer which did not offer health insurance, raises, or a pension. There was no security to be had, whatsoever. Looking for more stability, I applied for a job at the United States Steel, Fairless Works, and...
WALK IN MY SHOES–Brian Jerlin, UA Local 376, Norfolk, Virginia
Union Brother since 2005, Brian Jerlin fondly remembers being selected at age 17 to begin apprenticeship in a new program called Public Works Center (now Naval Facility Engineering Mid-Atlantic). With a desire to excel and motivation to learn, Brian was the first...
Walk in My Shoes–Anthony von Dessauer, HAYWARD, CALIF., CWA LOCAL 9412, AT&T TECHNICIAN
I am a third generation communications worker. I may not be as eloquent as others, but I understand that the roof over my family’s head, the food in their bellies, and the clothes on their back are there because those who came before me fought hard and sacrificed to...
