Why labor leader Laurel Brennan loves this holiday

Labor Day inaugurates the political season for unions that muster their organizational power to campaign for pro-labor candidates.

For Laurel Brennan, the highest-ranking female labor leader in New Jersey, this year's effort is especially meaningful.

"I feel a deep sense of pride and satisfaction," said Brennan, 64, secretary- treasurer of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, talking about the possibility that the nation will elect its first female president.

"A woman in the White House will be a positive role model and inspire women to realize their own value," Brennan said. "Many of these women will see that they are capable and competent leaders and become role models and mentors themselves."

What should Hillary Clinton's priorities be if she wins?

Provide access to affordable quality public education from early childhood to college; create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and revitalize our national manufacturing base by investing in green technology and reforming broken one-sided trade deals; support legislation that removes unfair barriers to union representation and collective bargaining; and raise wages, so that no one who works full time in this country has to live in poverty.

Any advice to Clinton?

Stay focused on the issues that you have been advocating for all of your adult life; know that you have the credentials to be president.

What about in Jersey - what do unions want the state government to do? 

Fully fund pensions for more than 800,000 active and retired public employees; fix the state Transportation Trust Fund, which has run out of money, costing the state thousands of jobs; and support fair pay and treatment for workers by increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, passing earned sick leave, and closing the pay gap between men and women.

At the AFL-CIO, you started the WILD program - Women in Leadership Development. Any lessons, particularly when working in a mostly male situation?

Know your own strengths. Use them. And don't ever talk about your weaknesses, even if you're nervous about dealing with something.

Working with men, they want to help you. So you let them help you, but you also let them know you are strong enough to accept their help. That was my secret. We're all equals. I would be helpful to them if I had a strength, whether it was interpreting a contract or even giving them some advice.

So, never show your weaknesses.

Play your strengths. Sometimes it's going into the room first, where it might be a hostile meeting, but you know that the members might prefer if you walk in first. Set the tone. You can do that.

And the men are grateful for your being first in that situation?

Absolutely. You feel proud of doing that, too, because you are contributing. Also, my organizing skills always played well. In my heart, I'm an organizer, no matter what I do.

Describe an organizer's perspective.

An organizer's perspective is that you can't do this by yourself. You don't go into the boss and say, "Give her an extra dollar." You bring people in with you and you make them part of the process. So it strengthens them and it strengthens you.

Tell me more.

You file grievances. You negotiate contracts. It's very easy to do it by yourself, but then the members don't know what you've done. It doesn't make them part of the process, which, in fact, empowers them.

So, I would involve my members with everything I did.

It was transparent and they saw what I did, so they aren't going to complain that the union doesn't do anything.

That's the organizing mentality, and I do that with the people I work with now. I include them on everything because I value their opinion. At the same time, I want them to learn and think.

Doesn't it make everything take longer?

It takes a lot of work and a lot of patience, but you're building and you're growing. They're making my life easier.

How so?

Because the next time there's a grievance or a problem, they won't be so fast to call me. They'll know how to do it themselves. They're more informed and more aware.

Any other advice? 

Always give recognition and credit to the people who did the work. Things that get rewarded get done.

Interview questions and answers have been edited for space.

jvonbergen@phillynews.com

215-854-2769@JaneVonBergen

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Title: Secretary-treasurer, New Jersey State AFL-CIO. First woman in that post.

Home: Cherry Hill

Family: Husband, Mike Brennan; daughter, Erin Young.

Resume: Started as an intern in a union; became an organizer with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, now Workers United; then business agent for the Philadelphia-South Jersey District Council.

Points of pride: Formed the Southern New Jersey Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). Began the WILD, Women in Leadership Development, for the N.J. AFL-CIO.

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What: An association of 48 affiliated unions in New Jersey, as well as building trades councils and county labor groups.

Headquarters: Trenton.

Represents: 650,000 workers.

Dollars: $1.75 million in revenue, mostly from dues. $8 million in assets.

SOURCE: Dollar figures from 2014 IRS report, which is the most recent available. EndText

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