We Are, And Always Have Been, Stronger Together Women's March Washington D.C January 21, 2017

As I stood on the convention floor on the night of the election, I along with millions of women around the country, was filled with hope that a woman would be finally breaking the ultimate glass ceiling. A woman President. Women have always heard growing up, act like a girl, that’s not for girls, you can’t do that because you are a girl. Some of us heard it hundreds of times, others heard it thousands of times. But on that night all those statements faded into a distant memory. For women we were going to see the day when we would finally receive things that many take for granted such as freedoms and rights like equal pay and equal say at work. Our right to collective bargaining would be protected for at least another four years. Our right to join a union, our rights to choose to make our own decisions on reproductive rights, freedom from work-place harassment, just to name a few.
On election night hope faded pretty quickly and the fear set in. I remember thinking “Oh my God, what has America done?” I left the Javits Center that night at 2am and I could not help but think about Harry Van Arsdale and his words from 1986 of the fight going back to the streets. I thought about where we are as a nation and how much more would we have to lose before we begin to move forward again. How many years of progress would be rolled back before we begin to rise up and stop the hate, the violence towards one another. What would it take for everyone to see that all these issues that are dividing us are merely distracting us from progress and rebuilding a stronger middle class.
One woman can make a difference. The night after the election one woman started a Facebook group asking other women to march in Washington D.C on January 21, 2017, the first day Mr. Trump would be in office, to send a message that women will not stand for the rolling back of women’s rights. The next morning, she had 10,000 followers. From that moment, a MOVEMENT was built. As a woman, active within the labor movement and the women’s movement, I heard about the march on Washington. I had asked the Business Manager if there was a way that we could send a bus to D.C for the march. Ok truth be told, I nagged the Business Manager about getting a bus to Washington D.C for the march. Once we got the approval, the women of Local 3 stepped right up. Sister Tanya Cunningham gathered a group of sisters to make posters and she was instrumental in getting the word out about the bus. The women of Local 3 answered the call. The New Amber Light President Michele Benacort-Maldanado, as well as many other Amber Light sisters, chipped in to make the day happen.
We arrived at the Union Hall at 4:15 am fired up and ready to go. I am not sure any of us, including myself had any idea what to expect. We loaded onto the bus and began our journey to Washington D.C. It was right around the time that we hit the New Jersey Turnpike that we all began to point out to one another to look at all of these buses. There were buses for miles in front of us and buses for miles behind us. We would see anywhere from 30 to 60 buses at each rest stop. There were parking lots full of women wearing their pink marching hats. I think it was around 8:00 am when we realized, this is going to be bigger than we thought. I myself began to get chills and the feeling that we are going to make history today.
We arrived in Washington D.C. at 10 am and headed over to the march. As we stepped out of Union Station it was just amazing. Thousands and thousands of men and women, from all walks of life, embracing one another and their issues. You see this wasn’t just a women’s rights gathering, it quickly became clear that this was a HUMAN RIGHTS gathering. I walked along the streets and again thought of Harry Van Arsdale and the fight being taken back to the streets. See, for women, we have the most to lose because we have not yet even reached the point of equal. We still do not have equal pay, equal job opportunity and still many times are blamed when we are in fact the victims of harassment and assault. The walk made me realize that the women get it. I couldn’t help but reflect on history and think about the 147 women who had to die in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in order to bring about change. I thought about the women in the Lowell mills back in 1823 who were the first to strike for better wages, Mothers Jones who marched 125 miles with a group of children workers to the President’s house to bring awareness to child labor, Ella Mae Wiggins who was assassinated in cold blood on her way to a picket line, the Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 by immigrant working women leading to the creation of the Department of Labor. The crowd began to fill up and the feeling of women being the conduit of change became very apparent.
The day was truly inspiring. We walked along and met people from across the country. We watched everyone peacefully gather. You see there was no color that day and no religion that day. That day there was one race and that was the human race. After the march we made our way back to the International Office in D.C and were given some swag. It was so great to see our young apprentices take in the day. Seeing them walking into the International Office and seeing the light go on that they are now part of something bigger than themselves was amazing to witness. We were picked up at the International Office and began our journey home. One would think that we would be tired from such a long day, but we weren’t. We talked among ourselves about what happened that day. It was a å_moment that we all shared together. We were energized and ready to take on whatever fight came our way.
We stopped at the rest stop and before I got onto the bus our bus driver, Sylvester, said, “You ladies made history today.” He smiled and we got on the road. Shortly after we started driving, I received a call from the Business Manager. We spoke about the day and how everyone was safely back on the bus. He said today was big and asked me to share with all the women on the bus how proud he was of us. As the ride went on we all began to get text messages on our phones and as they came in we began to realize how big of an event the day was. As each new fact came in we would shout out in celebration, “Women of the world made history!” We organized 3 million marchers in all 50 states in 70 different countries. We put the current administration on notice that we are a force to be reckoned with. We all left leaving each other with big hugs and a commitment to march on through collective action. We all committed to one another not to stop moving forward and to drop the ladder for the next one behind us. The women of Local 3 are FIRED UP AND READY TO GO.
Erin Sullivan
3rd District Women’s Committee
Representative