Abstract
Union politics have stereotypically been the province of straight white men. Miriam Frank’s Out in the Union is an important and timely history that remedies that misconception, drawing on archival research and over 100 interviews with LGBTQ workers and union leaders to demonstrate the significant imbrications of gender, sexuality, and struggles for justice in the workplace since the mid-1960s. As co-author of a booklet that inspired the formation of Pride at Work, an LGBT faction of the AFL-CIO, Frank is particularly well situated to document this story.
Frank begins with narratives of people who came out at work or in their unions and often battled hostility in both settings. Next, the book addresses how coalitional politics connecting union leaders, elected officials, and the queer community were integral to advancing LGBT issues like domestic partner benefits, bereavement leave, and gender nondiscrimination at work. Successful campaigns against Coors Beer and Proposition 6—a 1978 ballot initiative that banned LGBTQA teachers and workers from California public schools—highlight the power of such partnerships beyond the shop floor. Frank demonstrates how some of the most contentious battles occurred within the queer community itself, like when HIV health workers advocated for their own rights against bosses who took advantage of employees performing a labor of love.
Frank concludes by taking stock of contemporary union politics, focusing on attempts to “organize the unorganized,” mobilize for queer justice, and pave the way for widespread acceptance of gay marriage. Out in the Union proffers a much needed, multi-layered presentation of labor movement history, highlighting important wins, contradictions, and questions for future analysis. This book will be of interest to scholars of work and labor, social movements, and gender and sexuality studies.