Vol. 1, No. 9                                                                                                               October 2014  

Have You Gotten Around to Voting Yet?

 Two of these referenda especially affect working women. One proposes that the minimum wage in Illinois be raised to $10 per hour by January 2015. Remember, many minimum-wage earners are not teenagers, but adults trying to support their families, and women comprise over half the people in the US making minimum wage.

The second referendum allows Illinois voters to voice their opinions on whether health insurance plans that provide prescription drug coverage should or should not be required to provide prescription birth control as part of that coverage. Undoubtedly inspired by the July Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, this is a vitally important issue when it comes to working women's health.

While the referenda are "advisory questions" (not legally binding for the state) it's not often Illinois voters get to voice their opinions on so many important issues in a format that guarantees we will be heard. And since the majority of voters in the US today are women, there is no doubt that women's opinions will be prevalent in the results--as long as you get out and vote.

So what are you waiting for? Find your Chicago polling place here. 

Young Activist Series: Lorraine Zapata, Part I 

Zapata is originally from Los Angeles, California, and moved to Chicago this past year. Her childhood had a lot of influence on her choice of careers. She says, "I grew up in East Los Angeles, which is a very poor neighborhood, and I also grew up in the foster care system. So from a very young age I had a very different set of life experiences, I think, than most people. I had to go through a lot of challenges. So I always knew that I was going to do something under the umbrella of social justice. I didn't know it was called social justice at the time. I just knew there were things that I saw happening to me, and my family, and people that looked like me, and people that lived where I lived that I thought were unjust, and I wanted to change that."

She started out trying to help others by working in education. "I was working at Head Start, and the preschool that I was working at was organized. It was a union Head Start, which there are not that many of, through the AFT, which is the American Federation of Teachers. So I was a member there, and I became educated about, you know, what unions were, and the whole struggle for the labor movement, and I got really involved. I became a shop steward, I became a member of the Executive Board, and then I became a member organizer. You know, I had done some political phone banking for different propositions we were trying to pass in 2010, and I got paid for it, and I liked it. So I became a member organizer, and they sent me out on a campaign, and after that I decided I wanted to transition to being a full time organizer." Zapata researched different unions and discovered Warehouse Workers for Justice, where she now works. "Really, I found them, because I liked what they stood for. So that's how I got involved. That's why I moved out here... You know, the warehouse industry is something that is important that we organize it right now," she explains.

In the end, Zapata says, "No, I didn't know I was going to be a union organizer, but I knew I was going to be involved with something, and once I did get involved, I felt like I had found my niche... I think my favorite part of the work that I do is when I get to see people move out of a state of apathy, or being complacent, or just being misinformed, to this place of empowerment."

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Watch out for Part II in our November newsletter, where Zapata talks about contemporary labor issues and the gains she wants to make in empowering workers and increasing their rights.

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WWHP is delighted to announce that Lookingglass Theatre's Civic Practice Lab has formed a partnership with us, with plans to create dramatic material inspired by the stories we are collecting in our Child Care in Chicago project.   

Look for more information in the November newsletter.