Women of Steel bring a dance party and solidarity to Pitt organizing effort

Hundreds of women streamed out of buses stopped on Forbes Avenue in Oakland shortly after 4 Tuesday afternoon, then headed up Bigelow Boulevard as if on a mission. And they were. Within minutes, music thumped from speakers near Fifth Avenue, and a dance party raged on a one-block section of Bigelow.

Students passing through on the way to and from classes stopped and stared. This, one of the women said, is what it’s like to be in a union. And it was, at least on this day.

The dancing kicked off a tune-filled rally by Women of Steel activists with the United Steelworkers determined to: 1.) have a good time and 2.) show solidarity with staff members and graduate workers at the University of Pittsburgh who are organizing with the USW.

Women of Steel members (about 1,200 of them) from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Brazil are gathering in Pittsburgh this week for a conference. They’ve been attending workshops on topics such as worker education and health and safety in the workplace. They’re a diverse group, employed in a variety of union jobs. Some are paper workers; others are nurses. Some work in the atomic industry or in higher education. That’s just a sampling.

After the dancing, Edwin Everhart and the Pittsburgh Labor Choir led the throng in a collection of classic union songs (“Solidarity Forever,” “Which Side Are You On,” etc.). Then it was time for a few brief speeches.

Roxanne Brown, USW’s international vice president at large, led the crowd in a series of boisterous chants and cheers and then declared, “Something is happening in Pittsburgh. … Workers all throughout this city are seeing the power of collective action.”

Alison Mahoney, a Ph.D. student at Pitt and a member of the graduate student organizing committee, climbed onto the bed of a pickup truck to address the crowd and couldn’t contain her obvious delight.

“Hi, Women of Steel,” she said. The crowd roared with approval. Then, with a laugh, Mahoney declared, “This is AWESOME.”

She told the crowd that she and her colleagues “have seen wages shrink dramatically compared to the rising cost of living in Pittsburgh.” Health care has been changed without warning or consultation, she added.

“We organize because we know Pitt can do better,” Mahoney said. “We are Pitt, we make Pitt work, and together we can make Pitt work for us.”

Molly Ritter, a project coordinator in Pitt’s psychology department, said the organizing campaign “is not just about fair wages, it is about respect, equality and dignity for all workers, regardless of their gender.”

She said the university is losing valuable workers because of Pitt’s low pay. “Our colleagues are the heartbeat of this university,” she said. “When they leave, we hemorrhage talent, we bleed diversity, and innovation is stymied.

“We are talking about real people,” she continued. “These are our friends, our neighors, our mentors, and they are leaving in droves. And the people who stay are suffering. I have co-workers who rely on local food pantries, others who sell plasma to make ends meet and countless more who can keep doing this critical work only because they’re being supported by higher earning partners and family members.”

Many of those gathered were new to Pittsburgh, so Maria Somma, USW organizing director, described the city’s history of steelmaking and the massive mills that once stood on the rivers and employed tens of thousands of workers.

Pittsburgh’s economy now relies on education and medicine, she said. “While some of the old steel mills have gone, our union has not. We’re still here and we’re thriving. Now our union’s mission is to help workers of the present-day economy, the eds and meds.”