Sheila Perez never signed up to break glass ceilings on the job. But that's exactly what she's been doing for years.
She's built a successful career in a traditionally male-dominated field—engineering and technology—and in a male-dominated culture (the Navy). And she'll be the first to tell you that one of the best tools for breaking through some of those ceilings and helping other women to do the same is her union, Local 12 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers ().
As a mechanical engineering technician at the Navy's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state, Perez is responsible for maintenance and repair of piping systems on submarines. As she notes, "Those systems carry air and fluids such as water through the subs. We replace valves or pipes when it's required, and then we're responsible for testing the systems after they're repaired."
When she started with the Navy 32 years ago, her experience with the union movement was nil. Then a shop steward with IFPTE asked her to join. "He told me the union was giving its support to women in the workforce." She eventually became one of the local's most active members.
A pivotal event for Perez, as for many union women, was an AFL-CIO Working Women's Conference in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1990s. "That was so empowering," she now recalls. So much so that when she returned home, she decided to do what she had never done before: She ran for office in her local as financial secretary.
And she won.
Partly because of Perez's efforts, Local 12 looks much different these days. "We actually have several women on our Executive Board now," according to Perez, who is executive vice president.
"Women have a reputation here for being good negotiators," she points out. "We're ready to discuss things. We stand hard, but we stand hard in a smart way."
Perez stays involved with Local 12 because she's "always been a person who likes to help people"—and the union has given her an avenue to do that.
Local 12 members deal with the same headache that plagues every open shop—free riders who don't pay union dues but take advantage of the union's services when they need its help.
"We're required to represent employees whether they're union members or not," says Perez. "But that can actually be a recruiting tool for us. There's a man I'd been working on for 20 years to join the union. One day, he said, 'Sheila, I'm going to join because of the good work you did to help my friend who wasn't a member and almost lost his job.' And he joined!"
If Perez has changed her local—and she certainly has—it's also changed her.
"The training I've had in the union has helped me to be a little more assertive in my own job," she observes. For instance, she travels to Capitol Hill every year to talk with lawmakers about union issues in the shipyard—something she never had the confidence to do before.
"In the union, I know I have people behind me. I know I'm not alone."
