I am a union member.

I'm a member of a union, and am very active in it.  I have held three different chapter officer positions (currently, First Vice President), have gone to several trainings, business conferences, and am now a job steward (sorta like a guardian ad litem for union members).  Through the union, I've also been appointed on several college committees, district committees, and even a county committee.  At the state-wide association, I'm on the community college committee. 

I often have trouble at events with union members who are outside of my chapter. Part of the reason for my trouble is that my union is primarily made up of K-12 schools. As a community college representative, we have many differences. We're not fighting for "kids." Our employees are more educated. We don't deal with the parents of our students (well, as much as we can avoid it!).
Another reason that I have trouble is that my union is for classified school employees. Classified employees are everyone who is not a teacher/faculty member or an administrator (manager/VP/president/superintendent/chancellor). This means that my union is made up of truly blue collar workers: custodians, secretaries, food service workers, recess aids, bus drivers, plumbers & electricians, grounds keepers. And IT and researchers. Who doesn't belong in that group? Who isn't quite blue collar?  My education sets me apart from many (although I try to never bring it up), but at least other community college (CC) employees have similar work experiences as me. Our work environment is very different from that of K-12 classified workers.

I mention all of this as a prelude to my next blog, but also just to emphasize that not all union members are the same.  We all want protection for workers and middle-class wages, but our backgrounds and work experiences can be vastly different.  Even when we're in the same union.  Heck, even when we're in the same school!  My chapter's Executive Board (EBoard) is made up of a welder (President), research analyst (First Vice President), financial  aid technician (Second  Vice President), event coordinator (Treasurer).  We have a couple vacant officer positions, but those were last held by a math tutor (chapter Public Relations Officer) and an administrative assistant (Secretary).  Clearly, our EBoard officers have different work experiences, but in our case it brings different strengths and different connections to the union.