Oregon leaders win AFT women’s rights award

Two lifetime members of the Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA), Bonnie Luisi and Merlene Martin, have accepted one of the highest honors bestowed by the AFT: the Living the Legacy award. The AFT Women’s Rights Committee instituted this award in 1998 to recognize the contributions of women who have been reformers, risk-takers and role models in the AFT.

Martin and Luisi each received their awards during the Women’s Rights Breakfast at the biennial AFT convention in Houston this past July. In first recognizing Martin and Luisi at home in Oregon the month before, OSEA President Sarah Wofford called the pair “shining stars” and said it was an honor and a pleasure to celebrate their illustrious histories.

The AFT’s Living the Legacy award honors women in the labor movement who have shown leadership in advancing women’s rights; have organized and led union members at the local, state and national levels over several decades; have served as mentors, coaches and role models for other women in the labor movement; and are recognized as community leaders.

OSEA represents more than 24,000 school and college support staff across the state. These paraprofessionals and school-related personnel (PSRPs) work in public schools, Head Start centers, education service districts, community colleges, parks and libraries.

A national voice

Martin became active in OSEA while working for more than two decades as an educational assistant in the South Lane School District. She rose to leadership within her chapter, serving as chapter secretary, vice president and president. She also served on OSEA’s board of directors for 17 years, including nine as state president starting in 2001.

During her presidency, Martin, together with AFT PSRP chair emeritus Lorretta Johnson, spearheaded her union’s affiliation with the AFT, giving classified education employees in Oregon a new voice at the national level. Martin also served as an AFT vice president, a member of the AFT PSRP program and policy council and on the board of the American Association of Classified School Employees (AACSE).

You can imagine Martin’s surprise and emotion when she learned she had received the award. “I really felt humbled and honored—that I hadn’t been forgotten. Then I was sad that I couldn’t be there,” she says. “But I still do the work for the retiree chapter with Bonnie.”

Martin retired from her career as a paraprofessional in 2011 and was awarded an OSEA lifetime membership, the union’s highest honor, in recognition of her devoted service. Although she has been “retired” for more than a decade, she continues to serve her union and community as vice chair of the Retired Oregon School Employees. ROSE looks out for the welfare of current and future retired OSEA members, focusing on pensions, Social Security, Medicare and the well-being of older Americans.

She doesn’t stop there, either. Martin has been appointed to many statewide committees, including the OSEA finance and scholarship committees; was elected to the South Lane School Board; and is active on the earth and social justice committee of a church in her town of Cottage Grove. She enjoys spending time with her family and watching her grandchildren grow up to become delightful human beings.

“To share this honor with Bonnie, who has been my friend and partner for so many years, that has been the icing on the cake,” Martin says. “And I didn’t know that Sarah nominated us! Sarah recognizes the importance of ROSE and [our] commitment to it. She’s a great leader.”

Every leadership position

Bonnie Luisi worked as a classified employee in special education and behavior for the Hermiston School District for more than 22 years. As an OSEA member, she filled, at one point or another, every chapter leadership position available—and most state positions, too. She was elected as zone director, state vice president for 11 years, and OSEA president starting in 2010. At the national level, she has served as an AFT vice president and was selected to join the AFT PSRP program and policy council and the AACSE board.

Luisi was named an OSEA lifetime member in 2012 when she retired from her role as state president. She, too, continues to work on behalf of OSEA members and all workers. She has served on the Hermiston School Board, the AFT Retirees board and the Oregon Educator Benefits board. She immediately joined ROSE upon retirement and is the ROSE chair, a position she has held for five years. In retirement, she especially enjoys reading, crafts and traveling to Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico.

[Annette Licitra/OSEA photos]