UFCW 3000 Member Story: Alison DeBoise

Alison DeBoise recording a solidarity video for California Planned Parenthood workers fighting for a union

Alison DeBoise (she/they pronouns) works as an Insurance Biller for Planned Parenthood in Seattle and is an active shop steward at her work location. They talk about how they got involve in being a steward:

After college, I knew I wanted to work for Planned Parenthood because I'm passionate about access to reproductive healthcare for all. I began working at the Bellevue location in the Refill Center mailing patients their medication and became interested in the union after getting to know my coworkers better, attending general membership meetings, and our contract expiring not long after the pandemic started. Other stewards in my workplace inspired me to become a steward because I wanted to be a helpful resource to my coworkers.

Alison is now serving on the bargaining committee for the Planned Parenthood contract during negotiations this year, and has also stepped up to offer solidarity with Southern California Planned Parenthood workers fighting to organize a union with UFCW Local 324 by recording a video to offer those workers solidarity:

Being a part of a union with my coworkers has given us greater power to ask for and get what we need. Better wages, better working conditions, better work-life balance, and better time-off benefits.

We couldn’t agree more with Alison!

UFCW 3000 Member Story: August Silva

August SIlva

August Silva (she/they), is a Patient Access Center Representative and Shop Steward at Planned Parenthood Tacoma. As a trans woman, she has faced a lot of challenges at her previous jobs, many of them coming behind the boss’s door:

I knew I wanted to work for Planned Parenthood because when I started transitioning in the Fall of 2021 and I couldn't think of a place that'd be more accepting of trans people like me than the place I get my hormone replacement care. My previous employer felt like I was taking "too much time off for frankly unnecessary office visits" and I applied the very next day! I love working with transgender patients.

August completed her first steward training this spring, and sees her work at Planned Parenthood and organizing her coworkers as being two sides of the same coin:

I want to do whatever sort of work I can for employees and patients to make sure there are equitable practices for everyone within the organization, and I think being a part of UFCW [3000] gives me the safety to be a voice for transgender employees in states that aren't unionized.

Outside of work, August enjoys listening to Jazz and helping provide mutual aid to unhoused people with Serve The People Tacoma. August is a great example of solidarity in action.

Pride 2020

Every year we celebrate Pride, our hard-fought right to bring our whole selves to work and to be who we are at work and in our communities. People have sacrificed and died for the right to love who we love and live as who we are. In 2020, in the face of the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and institutionalized racism in the US, we must be vigilant in not sliding back but moving forward for all workers. We know LGBTQ and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) face discrimination in our workplaces and our communities. We continue to make vital contributions to healthcare, grocery, retail and all of our workplaces so that all our communities can be healthy and thrive.

We hope you can join us in celebrating Pride 2020!

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Attend Pride 2020 Events online: 

This year’s Seattle-area Pride celebrations have moved online, and we encourage any and all interested UFCW 21 members to attend. Register for free at the link below.

www.togetherforpride.org 

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Check out the gallery of past years when we could celebrate Pride in person: 

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There are a few in-person Pride events as well:

As with all in-person actions at this time, please be careful and follow all best practices: wear a face covering, bring hand sanitizer, practice social distancing, and do not attend if you are feeling unwell or are in a high-risk category for COVID-19.

Black LGBTQ+ Lives Matter   
Saturday, June 27, 1:00pm
Wright Park, 501 S I Street, Tacoma

This rally and march organized by three young activists focuses on the impact of police brutality on Black LGBTQ lives.

Capitol Hill Pride March  
Saturday, June 27, 10:00am
Seattle Central College Campus Lawn, 1701 Broadway

This event is organized by the Capitol Hill Festival directors Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson. Help bring a message that strengthens connections between the issues particularly facing the Black and LGBTQ community today.

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Further reading:

Read the open letter from LGBTQ organizational leaders to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan: 

“Here we are, more than 50 years later, still fighting the same systems of anti-Black violence and lack of police accountability that spurred our movement.” Read the full letter >>

Read the letter from UFCW 21 community partner LGBTQ Allyship to Mayor Durkan and Seattle City Council: 

“It is in our tradition to fight for justice, to demand for equitable treatment, and advocate for fairness. The brutal murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Shaun Fuhr, Manual Ellis and Tony McDade and so many others at the hands of the police is unconscionable. Over the last week many in the LGBTQ+ community went to the streets in Seattle to protest police brutality targeting our black community.”  Read the full letter >>

Read UFCW 21’s statement on the recent Supreme Court ruling banning workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people nationwide: 

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling confirms the legal precedent of what our union already knows: all working people deserve a workplace that is free from discrimination based on who we are. No one deserves to be fired or denied a job because of our gender identity or sexual orientation. That has now been upheld as federal law by the highest court in the country, offering millions of workers legal protection from discrimination at work.”  Read the full statement >>

Support Whole Foods workers in Seattle who were kicked out of work for wearing Black Lives Matter masks, then watched management take down the store’s Pride flag as a show of neutrality. Follow these workers on Twitter: twitter.com/WfmWsl 

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Learn how to get involved in LGBTQ rights in the labor movement year-round by getting in touch with these organizations:  

• UFCW OUTreach is a UFCW constituency group working to ensure full equality for LGBTQ+ workers on their jobs and in their unions. 

• Pride at Work is a UFCW 21 community partner organization dedicated to mutual support between the organized labor movement and the LGBTQ community to further social and economic justice. Learn more at prideatwork.org  

• LGBTQ Allyship is a UFCW 21 community partner building power among LGBTQ communities and allies in Washington State to work towards economic, racial, and gender justice. Learn more at allyship.org 

• Ingersoll Gender Center is a UFCW 21 community partner and one of the oldest organizations by and for transgender and gender nonconforming communities in the United States. Learn more at ingersollgendercenter.org 

• Gender Justice League is a UFCW 21 community partner working to empower trans activists and our allies to fight oppression based on gender & sexuality in Washington State. Learn more at genderjusticeleague.org 

Join us at Trans Pride!