Lynn unions hold solidarity event

LYNN – Chalita Coburn knows what it’s like to be part of the minority.She is the only black person and one of very few women at her workplace.Coburn was invited recently to speak about her experience going through the Lynn-based E-Team Machinist Training Program, which led to her current job working as a machinist. The occasion: the 4th Annual Women’s Solidarity Breakfast, held by the Women’s Committee of the North Shore Labor Council.The Lynn Housing Authority Community Room was packed with 75 union and non-union women who gathered on Nov. 22 to hear Coburn speak.Reflecting the theme of “Inspiring Women of All Ages,” Coburn talked about her training and her present job. “Even though getting through the E-Team was hard, I knew that I had to get through it to be a role model for my daughter. I used all the skills that the E-Team taught me and now I have a job as a machinist,” she said.Other speakers at the event included Fabiola Oliveros, an employee of Lynn Community Health Center, who talked about the difficulty of re-uniting her family because of current immigration laws in the United States.Deborah Jeffers spoke about the fight of her union, AFSCME 294, to improve the quality of food being served to the kids in the Salem public schools by allowing the cafeteria workers to run the food service program themselves and keep their jobs.”This has been so successful that the program was able to hire new people and make a profit,” she said.Barbara Mann of Massachusetts Senior Action reflected on jobs that she has held throughout the years and how much of a difference having a union made in her life. Alex Brown, vice president of the IUE-CWA Local 201, which represents GE workers in Lynn, said the packed room was inspirational. “It’s encouraging to be in a room filled with other strong women. It was great to hear the stories of both union women and community women making our lives better,” she said.Rachel Tose, a paraprofessional at the Ford School in Lynn, and member of the Lynn Teachers Union, used the event to celebrate the election of U.S. President Barack Obama. “We had this idea of putting together a giant dream catcher, and went around the room asking women to write down their dreams. So many of us want affordable, universal health care, a better economy with good jobs, and an end to the war in Iraq,” she said. “We are all so hopeful that things might change for the better now that Barack Obama has been elected.”