Social Justice Awards
Celebrating Our
Past and Future
June 13, 2006
The convention theme of “Honoring our Past, Forging Our Future” took on special meaning with the UAW’s Social Justice Award presentations. A groundbreaking member of our union’s past and a group whose activism in support of workers energizes a new generation were celebrated in a ceremony that tied together two eras spanning 60 years.
Union pioneer Millie Jeffrey was posthumously recognized for her great contributions to the UAW and social justice, and the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) was awarded for its fight for sweatshop-free labor conditions and workers’ rights.
Photos: Don Lehman, UAW Local 249 
Sharon Jeffrey Leher receives the Social Justice Award on behalf of her mother, Millie Jeffrey, who died in 2004. |
A labor, women's and civil rights champion
In the 1930s, Millie Jeffrey learned firsthand the power workers gain through joining a union and as an organizer of textile workers. During WW II she worked for the War Labor Board where she became friends with the Reuther brothers.
In 1944, UAW President Walter Reuther named Jeffrey director of the union’s newly formed Women’s Bureau where she was a staunch fighter for equal rights. As a founding member and chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus, Jeffrey was influential in encouraging women to run for public office, including spearheading the campaign to nominate Geraldine Ferraro as the 1984 Democratic candidate for vice president.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jeffrey the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest honor. Jeffrey died March 24, 2004. Sharon Jeffrey Leher accepted the UAW award for her mother.
Leher told convention delegates, “I remember vividly going to union halls and listening to the members talk … later being on picket lines in front of the General Motors building.”
Now, she said, “My mother lives on in you and all the members of the UAW.”
Gettelfinger said that the UAW remains inspired by Jeffrey’s words: “You never win freedom permanently. You have to win it time after time … whether it’s union rights, civil rights or equality for women. We have to keep at it and at it.”
Gladys Cisneros, development coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops, accepted the award for the organization. |
A new fighter for justice
Since late 1998, USAS has grown to more than 200 affiliates on university campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Recognizing that global problems require local solutions, USAS members fight for sweatshop-free labor conditions and workers’ rights for producers of university apparel as well as for university employees.
USAS has exposed the unscrupulous practices of some of the biggest U.S. corporations by publicizing the low pay and horrible working conditions these companies allow in their overseas facilities.
They campaign for universities to adopt ethical codes of conduct, full public disclosure and independent verification to ensure that all university products are made in sweatshop-free conditions. As a result of such campaigns, 150 colleges and universities have joined the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors the working conditions in factories where its members’ school apparel is made.
“The UAW applauds United Students Against Sweatshops for the important role they are playing in the fight for fair trade agreements, as well as decent wages and working conditions,” the award read. “Their commitment to solidarity across borders will continue to improve the lives of workers in all corners of the world.
Gladys Cisneros, development coordinator for USAS, accepted the award for the organization. She is the daughter of Jose Cisneros, a member of UAW Local 509 in Fullerton, Calif.
