(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) - United Steelworkers (USW) District 4 International Staff Representative Valerie Mueller-Thomas – affectionately dubbed Miss March by USW District 4 Sub-Director Jim Briggs, is one of 14 Working Union Women from across the State of New York who are featured on the Workforce Development Institute’s (WDI) just-released Women Working 2018 calendar – a “humbling honor,” Mueller-Thomas tells WNYLaborToday.com.

“I thought, ‘am I really worthy of this?,’” Muller-Thomas (Pictured Above/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper late last week during an interview at USW District 4’s Buffalo Office near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.  “I ‘don’t do the things I do to get recognized, but this is so flattering.’”

From a Steel Worker to a Social Worker, Construction Foreman, Broadcasting Producer, Public Dispatcher to a Public College Professor - these are the Working Union Women who have been recognized for their mettle by the Workforce Development Institute in their 2018 calendar.

The State-funded WDI works with both Unions and manufacturing companies.  Among its many roles, WDI Staff puts together training programs for companies and for Unions.  

“We connect, facilitate and fund,” WDI’s Deputy Director Vivian Benton told the New York United Teachers (NYSUT) Communications Department for a Labor News Report the Statewide Teachers’ Union featured on its web site (see its direct link at the bottom of this story).

The WDI - which has 10 Regional Offices across New York - annually produces the calendar to help highlight women and jobs, and to “to recognize women who have progressed in their careers and at the same time helped push the Labor Movement forward,” Benton said. 

And it was their Unions and workplace involvement that led them to leadership roles in their Union Locals and with their Central Labor Councils, a fact that weighed heavily in their selection to be featured in the calendar, WDI Representatives said.

Among the faces on the 2018 WDI Calendar are two NYSUT Members: Kathleen Taylor, retired from 22 years of teaching at Ulster County BOCES and a NYSUT Board Member; and Norma Chrisman, Educational Technology Specialist and President of the Mohawk Valley Community College Professional Association.  The other Union Women featured on the calendar - in addition to the USW’s Mueller-Thomas are: Lacy Weber and Dionne Welch, both from the International Union of Electricians (IUE)-Communications Workers of America (CWA); Jennifer Andrus of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET)-Communications Workers of America (CWA); Elizabeth Cassada of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 910; Sandie Forte of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU); Kathy Rodriguez of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA); Christina Nieves of Ironworkers Local 40; Ann Marie Taliercio of UNITEHERE Local 150, who also serves as President of the Central New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation; Randi DiAntonio of the Public Employees Federation (PEF); Linda Lesnewski of the  Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA); and Nikki Kateman of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)-United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 338.

Past Western New York Labor Leaders and Union Activists who have appeared in the WDI’s previous calendars include Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1168 President Cori Gambini and USW Local 3609 President Cindy Marlow, who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for the USW’s Women of Steel Western New York Council.

It was Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF) President Richard Lipsitz who put Mueller-Thomas’s name in for consideration to be featured in the calendar.

“The United Steelworkers haven’t approved many women to a position like that and she ‘deserves’ it,” Lipsitz tells WNYLaborToday.com, adding the “WDI does such great work across New York State.  “(Mueller-Thomas) ‘is great at what she does and she has quite a career in front of her.’  Val is a ‘very thoughtful person and she’s learned her stuff.’  ‘She has the quality attributes of being thoughtful and studious - and she has a warm personality.’”

According to her bio that appeared inside the WDI Calendar, Mueller-Thomas – who is also a Member of USW Local 3657, has worked for her Union since May 1997.  In May of this year, she became an International Staff Representative, serving 19 Units. 

In addition and under her co-leadership, the USW’s Next Gen Program has trained 500 Members, many of whom have taken on Union positions within their Locals in the States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Puerto Rico.  Next Gen(eration) Members also volunteer in their communities, work in New Hire Orientation Programs at their Locals and are very involved in both politics and Organizing.

Asked whether the WDI Women Working Calendar will serve as an inspiration to other women in the Labor Movement to get more involved in their Unions and work to rise in their ranks, Mueller-Thomas told WNYLaborToday.com: “Women ‘have come such a long way in the Labor Movement.’  ‘I am really proud (of my job) and I am passionate about it.’  ‘None of what we do is easy.’  This (calendar and the message it sends to women in Labor) ‘is huge – as long as this story gets out there to more women.’  ‘We need to get more women involved in their Labor Federations and Central Labor Councils.’  ‘Hopefully more will see it because it has the potential to inspire.’”

Just then, USW District 4 Sub-Director Jim Briggs, who also happens to be President of the Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, walked by and offered a playful comment: “Yup, she’s our ‘Miss March 2018.’”

And that okay with Mueller-Thomas, so long as it works to inform, educate and motivate more Union women to get involved in the Labor Movement.

To Directly Access NYSUT’s Labor News Report On The WDI’s Working Women Union Calendar, Go To: www.nysut.org/news/2017/december/workforce-development-springs-new-women-working-calendar