AFL-CIO Union Summer: ‘This Internship Has Changed Me’

by aflcioblogger, Jul 19, 2010

Carlos Daniel Rosa, the son of immigrants, says being a Union Summer for Jobs intern makes him part of a movement to make the American Dream a reality.

The AFL-CIO’s Union Summer for Jobs 2010, a 10-week educational internship in which participants are introduced to the labor movement, goes well beyond the average internship.

Ask Anthony Scorzo. His internship has included learning about UCubed, a social network for unemployed workers launched earlier this year by the Machinists (IAM). Scorzo can relate to the problems faced by unemployed workers. He’s a laid-off communications electrician and Electrical Workers (IBEW) member, so he knows what they’re going through.

We’re canvassing at unemployment offices, holding rallies outside the offices of politicians who voted against the jobs bill, starting potlucks in neighborhoods and community centers. There’s a lot of people out of work. They need benefits now. I’m one of them.

Or speak with Maddie Conway. She’s crossing a couple generational lines and accompanying the Alliance for Retired Americans on its Truth Tour through three cities in downstate Illinois. As she explains:

It’s about educating seniors about the new health care law and new issues around Social Security. It’ll be a traveling speakers’ bureau—seniors talking to seniors.

Or have a conversation with William Diaz. He and other Union Summer interns are experiencing intensive campaigns by hotel workers in the Los Angeles area—in some cases, involving workers forming a union with UNITEHERE! and in others, involving winning decent contracts.

The union has picketed at the Hilton LAX and Hilton Long Beach. We got to go along on house visits during union organizing, so we met some of the workers and heard what they’re going through.

Multiply these experiences by a few dozen and you have Union Summer 2010. In Atlanta, interns are helping to mobilize for a public action and hearing on July 22 that will focus on the epidemic of home foreclosures. In New York, interns took part in preparations for a City Hall rally to demand public-sector jobs.

Who are these interns? As they discovered when they gathered in Washington, D.C., for their initial training, they’re enormously diverse—black and brown and white, female and male, gay and straight. Some are new to the struggle for justice. Others have taken part in many campaigns.

But ask any intern what in their Union Summer experiences have moved them the most, and their replies probably won’t be about politics or grand theory. They’ll be about some very human moments.

Essie Ablavsky (left)

That’s true of Washington, D.C., intern, Essie Ablavsky. She’s no newcomer to justice struggles. Ablavsky has worked with UNITEHERE! Local 26 in Boston. As a student, she helped set up a social activism conference that focused on indigenous people’s rights, gender issues and economic justice.

A moment that touched her came during a District Council hearing on whether local police should supply information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about undocumented immigrants, even if they’ve not committed any crimes.

This wasn’t just a technical legal issue. Several immigrant women came up to testify. As Ablavsky describes:

They said if the police were doing this, these women would be afraid to call the police when they were victims of domestic and sexual violence. They told their stories. They said that in the past, the only thing that had kept them from being intimidated was that they could call the police for protection. If the police were giving information to ICE, that would disappear.

It was a powerful moment for Ablavsky.

Those women were pretty inspiring. They were coming up there and sharing something very personal in front of the Council. What struck me was their courage.

Other Union Summer interns have similar experiences. William Diaz saw why carwash workers were trying to form unions when he went to carwashes and saw the working conditions.

One was in the [San Fernando] Valley. It gets up to 100 degrees in the summer, but the workers didn’t even have shade. The cars pass through the tube, and when the workers dry them off, they’re right there directly under the hot sun.

I could see the workers being abused. It got to me.

And, of course, it showed why they needed a union in the first place.

Union Summer interns are helping their host unions make a difference for the construction workers, airport workers, carwash workers, hotel workers, unemployed workers, retired workers, and all the others the unions are supporting.

But by the account of the interns, Union Summer also is making a difference in their lives. Says Conway:

I didn’t know much about the labor movement before this. It was an unfamiliar animal. This summer has definitely influenced my direction.

“This internship has changed me,” Scorzo reflects.

I like it, learning about rallies and protests and organizing. I was dabbling a little here and there in being involved. Now I’m passionate about it. This is something I want to always be part of.

Carlos Daniel Rosa, a son of immigrants, came to Union Summer in the first place because he already knew what unions do. His parents both had union jobs. In a fascinating blog written by the Chicago interns, Rosa told about his growing up:

The food that was placed on my table, my affordable visits to the doctor and the stories my parents told me of the battles working people and their unions won (and lost) showed me the power of a united workforce and a union contract.

So he’s been clear from the start about what this summer is about for him.

I’m a Union Summer intern because I want to be part of the movement that is going to make the American Dream a reality again.

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