THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Jane LaTour

May 3, 1946 – April 3, 2023

“I anticipate lots of blowback for this book, but my feeling is that we need to examine the topic in order to get the labor movement we need and not the one we have… the long history of sweeping it all under the rug is not the answer. So, onward.”

Labor activist, educator, author, archivist, organizer, historian. Chronicled the lives of women in traditionally male labor unions. Author of the book Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City, 2008. Became involved in labor organizing in the 1960s as a rank-and-file union activist. Union organizer for District 65 of the United Automobile Workers of America, 1977-1979. Adjunct instructor, labor education programs, Empire State College, State University of New York, Queens College and other institutions. Taught classes to electrical apprentices from IBEW Local Union No. 3. Director of the Women’s Project, 1989-1990 and 2000-2002, Association for Union Democracy, a Brooklyn-based national civil rights organization for trade unionists. Served on the Board of  the New York Labor History Association; and as an archivist for the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. Journalist, Public Employee Press, official publication of District Council 37 of AFSCME. Second book, Rebels With a Cause: An Oral History of the Fight for Democracy in New York City Unions, is scheduled for publication in 2024. Bachelor’s degree, History, 1975; master’s degree, Labor Studies, 1979 both from Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Photo. Public Employee Press Associate Editor Jane LaTour covering the 2009 Labor Day Parade.