Single mom, member leader
12:19 AM - November 13, 2013
MeShan Rachal brings a history of organizing to Local 1000
Even before she began working for the state, MeShan Rachal was
always an activist, but after seeing the power of her union in
action, she stepped up for her fellow workers and the middle
class in many ways.
Rachal became a Local 1000 activist after a complicated
bureaucratic snafu caused her to be underpaid for a week every
month. She pressed her case to her supervisors and to the
Department of Personnel Administration. When that failed, she
sought contract enforcement help from her union.
“As soon as we won my case, I signed up for steward training. I
realized that my union – really my coworkers – needed me to step
up for them,” Rachal said. “I want to help my union get stronger
because in doing that I am helping the middle class get
stronger.”
“I like to get involved to improve things that are going on
around me, whether it’s in my community, my job or my kids’
schools,” said Rachal, an employment program representative at
the Employment Development Department (EDD) inSacramento. “I
don’t enjoy fighting, but I believe in fighting for what is
right.”
Rachal is a New Orleans native who grew up in Berkeley and
previously worked at UPS, where she served 10 years as a steward
with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
In 2009, she began working as a temp at the Franchise Tax Board,
then transferred to EDD, commuting from Sacramento to Oakland for
more than a year.
“It was a grind – I was leaving home at 4 a.m. and getting back
at 8 p.m.,” said Rachal, a single mother, whose children were in
high school at the time. “I didn’t have time for my family or
anything.”
Since becoming a steward, Rachal has been active in every major
Local 1000 campaign of the past two years, organizing a phone
bank of EDD workers in the 2012 elections and walking precincts
for President Obama in Reno. Earlier this year, she organized
coworkers in support of a new contract, and she testified before
the Legislature on behalf of a bill to strengthen the rights of
workers facing termination.
More recently, she has been recruiting new stewards at EDD
offices throughout Northern California. “The more stewards we
have, the stronger we are and the better the workers are treated.
It’s true everywhere I have worked,” she said.