Bonnie Ladin, National Labor College professor and union organizer, dies at 59

[Omaha Steve]

Labor has lost several long time friends this year. Our ranks are thinning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082606169.html

Friday, August 27, 2010

Bonnie Ladin, 59, a professor at the National Labor College who discovered her passion for workers' rights as a member of a bakers union in the 1970s and went on to become a leading organizer with the Service Employees International Union, died Aug. 25 at her home in Rockville. She had cancer.


Bonnie Ladin, an organizer with the SEIU for over 20 years, and husband Joseph Hansen, president of UFCW International. (Family Photo)


Ms. Ladin worked for the SEIU for more than 20 years before joining the National Labor College in Silver Spring in 2001. Ms. Ladin taught courses on organizing tactics and leadership skills.

At the SEIU, Ms. Ladin was the organizing director of District 925, a union of mostly female clerical workers. Its name is a play on the title of the 1980 movie "Nine to Five," starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as secretaries fed up with their chauvinistic male boss.

As the leader of District 925, Ms. Ladin helped organize workers in cities across the country, including Chicago, Cleveland and Seattle.

She later became the SEIU's national organizing director for clerical and health workers, particularly employees of nursing homes, and she represented more than 100,000 union members.

Bonnie Lou Ladin was born in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and she received a master's degree in Russian studies from San Francisco State University.

She spent two years in New York as an AmeriCorps volunteer, working on welfare rights before deciding she wanted to be a baker. Working at a Safeway bakery in San Francisco in the late 1970s, Ms. Ladin realized that she could combine her passions for bakery work and social activism as a union member, spurring her decision to become a labor organizer.

FULL story at link.

[myrna minx]

1. Thank you for fighting the good fight, Bonnie.

May you rest in peace.

[nofurylike]

2. RIP Bonnie Ladin. Gratitude.

:cry:


(thank you, Omaha Steve)

[niyad]

3. rest in peace, dear lady

[blm]

4. KandR good lady

.

[TBF]

5. Thanks for your hard work Bonnie -

RIP. And thanks to Omaha Steve for letting us know.

[Oceansaway]

6. K&R...n/t

[xchrom]

7. recommend

[Angry Dragon]

8. K&R

[Earth Bound Misfit]

9. K & R

RIP, Bonnie Ladin.
Thank you OS for posting

[one_voice]

10. Kicking for Bonnie. n/t

[AnArmyVeteran]

11. For you Bonnie (rec)