THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Gillian Furst

November 17, 1933 – July 20, 2015

“Most members want the same thing: a tough union leadership that will fight the greedy corporations.” – Gillian Furst about the Teamsters Vote, March 1997. 

Longtime activist in Teamsters for a Democratic Union. Played a key role in organizing the first women’s liberation demonstration in British history, a march of 4,000 people, in the 1960s. Key organizer of a project that sent buses of protesters to Springfield, IL, for a rally to support passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. To advance the cause of labor, went to work at Honeywell where she became a Teamster in Local 1145 and worked on an assembly line making thermostats, 1978. Instrumental in founding the Minnesota chapter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, 1989. Volunteered for the Twin Cities chapter of the National Organization for Women.