MAY 6, 2011:NWLP
5/3/11
9:54 AM
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Union and Proud:
At UNITE HERE, gay rights leader bridges two movements
Gay civil rights leader Cleve Jones
was a star guest April 20 at the kickoff
in Portland of the newly-chartered Ore-
gon chapter of Pride At Work. Pride At
Work is an AFL-CIO constituency
group for gay and lesbian trade union-
ists and is meant to connect the labor
movement and the LGBT (Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered)
community. Its goals are to promote
full equality in the workplace and
greater participation by LGBT mem-
bers in their unions, and to build sup-
port for the union movement in the
LGBT community.
Jones is one of the founders of the
Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
In the 1970s, he was an intern in the of-
fice of gay rights leader Harvey Milk, a
San Francisco city supervisor who was
assassinated in 1978. For the last six
years, Jones has worked for the hotel
and restaurant union UNITE HERE,
particularly on its “Sleep With the Right
People” campaign, an effort to get gays
and lesbians to patronize hotels that re-
spect the rights of their workers.
The Labor Press spoke with Jones
during his visit to Portland.
How did you come to be involved
with the labor movement?
My father’s family is from Detroit,
and they were stanch supporters of
unions. One never crossed a picket line.
One never violated a boycott. So I grew
up with these values. When I moved to
San Francisco and got active in the
early gay rights movement, there were
a couple unions that were early sup-
porters of equal rights for gay people.
Among them was the hotel workers
and restaurant workers union, Local 2
in particular. I worked in a hotel for a
while as a dishwasher, and had a lot of
friends working in restaurants and ho-
tels. If my roommate was on strike, I’d
go down and walk the picket line. Un-
derstand: San Francisco is still a really
have an opportunity right now to take
this country back. But it will only hap-
pen with a strong labor movement.
the issues that confront all working peo-
ple: safety on the job, decent wages, ac-
cess to health care, the ability to get our
kids an education, to breathe clean air
and drink clean water. I want to make
sure the LGBT community is right
there fighting alongside everybody else
for the changes this country needs, and
Pride at Work can be part of that.
Has workplace discrimination
against gay, lesbian and transgen-
dered workers been taken up as a
union issue?
Job discrimination is very signifi-
cant within the LGBT community. It’s
widespread. In some jurisdictions there
are legal protections on the books now,
but in many states there are no such
protections. One of the ways organized
labor has assisted is to include non-dis-
crimination clauses in contracts. There
are many workers in this country
whose only protection against discrim-
ination comes from their union con-
tracts. Health benefits for partners is an
example. This has been a big issue
within the gay community because our
relationships are not fully acknowl-
edged by the state. Many think of it as
a sentimental issue. Some think of it as
a religious issue. I think of it as an issue
of economic justice.
What does Pride at Work do?
Pride at Work exists to bring labor
issues to the gay community and
LGBT issues to the labor movement.
Right now is a very exciting time to do
that. What’s happened since Wisconsin
is really extraordinary. I’m 56. I have
never in my lifetime heard so many
young people talking about collective
bargaining as a fundamental right. I
want to make sure that everybody —
gay and straight, young and old, black,
brown and white, native-born and im-
migrant alike — understands that we
Right, straight workers can marry
and have their partners be covered by
all sorts of benefits, but gay workers
most often don’t have that right.
There are about 1,100 rights granted
to heterosexual couples that are denied
to same sex couples, and most of these
are economically significant. That’s a
big deal.
In our union, we have a very diverse
membership. We are largely immigrant.
People from almost every country in the
world are members. They come from all
different faiths and political beliefs.
Cleve Jones, front and center, celebrates the founding of an Oregon chapter
of AFL-CIO Pride at Work.
strong labor town.
What’s the connection between
the labor movement and the gay
rights movement?
In my mind it’s all one movement.
Most of my adult life has been spent
working on LGBT issues, but I believe
very strongly that any movement that
seeks only to advance the narrow inter-
ests of its own members is a shallow
movement, no matter how just their is-
sues. The movements that change the
world have been movements that cross
barriers and boundaries and find com-
mon ground between different kinds of
people.
What do you think of Pride At
Work?
I think it can play a really important
role. Very often when people think of
the gay community, they think of peo-
ple like me, white gay guys from mid-
dle class backgrounds. The reality is
gay people come in all sizes, shapes,
colors, from all sorts of backgrounds.
We’re born into rich families and poor
families, but the overwhelming major-
ity are working class folks. So yeah,
we’re concerned about equality for gay
people, but we also are concerned about
There’s still differing opinions on the is-
sue of homosexuality. But I think in-
creasingly our members are united in
understanding the economic justice
component of the struggle for equality.
How much does Pride at Work
have to contend with homophobia in
union workplaces?
Not nearly as much as I had antici-
pated. I think workers are getting smart.
It’s still important, though, for LGBT
people to come out and be visible. Over
30 years ago, Harvey Milk taught us that
the single most important thing gay peo-
ple could do was to come out, to reveal
their true nature to their families, friends,
and co-workers. We understand how im-
portant that is, because just through
coming out we shatter the myths and
stereotypes and hateful lies that have
been used against us for so long. All of
the studies and polls have shown that
once people understand that they have
gay co-workers and family members,
they are much less likely to hate or fear
us or discriminate against us. Part of
what Pride at Work does is enable and
encourage workers to come out and also
show that gay people are taking respon-
sibility for the larger struggle.
I love my union so much, because
when I go and visit members, whether
in Toronto or Honolulu, Phoenix,
Philadelphia or Miami, San Diego,
Minneapolis, I walk into these rooms
filled with hundreds of workers, and
they are young, old, gay, straight, black,
brown, white, from all different coun-
tries and native-born, and they’re all on
the same program. I think there’s great
power in that, and great potential.
ELECT MICHAEL SMITH
Reynolds School Board, Position 7
• 32 years working in sheet metal industry
• 12 years business agent for Sheet Metal
Workers Local 16
• Two daughters graduated from Reynolds H.S.
• Supports collective bargaining rights for
teachers and classified employees
“We must prepare all of our students for life after high
school. Partnerships with local businesses and excellent
vocational and apprenticeship classes can give our
students the skills they need to qualify for good jobs
in our community.”
ENDORSED BY: Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council;
NW Oregon Labor Council; Sheet Metal Workers Local 16;
Stand For Children, Reynolds Chapter; Multnomah County
Commissioner Loretta Smith.
Ad paid for by Friends of Michael Smith
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MAY 6, 2011