Regina Polk
Regina Polk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 14, 1950 |
| Died | October 11, 1983 |
| Alma mater | Mills College, University of Chicago |
| Known for | Labor Activism, Women's Rights Activism |
Regina Victoria Polk (February 14, 1950 – October 11, 1983)[1] was an American labor leader and an activist for women workers in Chicago during the 1970s and 1980s. She was first an organizer and then a business agent for Local 743,[2] the largest local in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.[3] Throughout her career, she campaigned to organize and then represent clerical workers in predominantly female workplaces.[4]
Early life and education
Regina Victoria Polk (Gina) was brought up by her father, Henry, a poor farmer, and her mother, Helen. She lived in Casa Grande, Arizona, until she was 14 when the family moved to Paradise, California. She graduated from Paradise High School in 1967. She attended Mills College, then an all-women college, where many of her classmates were wealthy young women. Polk was active politically in the civil rights and anti-war movements. She graduated in 1972 with a degree in Sociology. After working for a year in California, she moved to Chicago to attend graduate school in Industrial Relations at the University of Chicago. There she met her future husband, Thomas Heagy, a fellow graduate student.[5]
Career
In 1974, at the age of 25, Polk began to work part-time as a hostess at the Red Star Inn.[6] Appalled at the workplace conditions and the way employees were mistreated, she approached Local 734 of the Teamsters to ask them for help. She began a unionization campaign at the restaurant and was promptly fired. With the union's assistance, Polk successfully secured an unfair labor practice from the restaurant, but rather than returning to work, she joined the Teamsters as an organizer. She focused on white-collar workers and, in the succeeding years, led the organization of the clerical workers at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the University of Chicago, and Governors State University. Polk then became the business agent for the employees at the two universities. During her time at the Teamsters, she actively promoted the role of women, both as a focus of organizing and within the union ranks themselves.[7]
Death and legacy
In 1982, when Aldens, a major catalog company, closed their doors, over two thousand union members of Local 743 lost their jobs. Polk was put in charge of developing programs that would help them be retrained and re-enter the workforce. On October 11, 1983, she died on an Air Illinois commuter flight, on her way to a meeting on job programs for former Alden's employees. At the time of her death, she was one of the highest-ranking officials of the Teamsters Union.
After her death, her friends and colleagues established the Regina V. Polk Scholarship Fund for Labor Leadership in her honor, which currently supports programs at the University of Illinois in Chicago and DePaul University in Chicago and includes the Regina V Polk Labor Leadership Conference.[8][9][10][11]
Personal life
Polk was married to Thomas C Heagy.[12]
References
- ^ "Regina V. Polk: Breaking the Mold". American Postal Workers Union. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "Teamsters Local 743". www.teamsterslocal743.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "I Am a Teamster: A Short, Fiery Story of Regina V. Polk, Her Hats, Her Pets, Sweet Love, and the Modern-Day Labor Movement by Terry Spencer Hesser 1893121356 9781893121355". www.discoverbooks.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "Civic Labors: Scholar Activism and Working-Class Studies - University Press Scholarship". www.universitypressscholarship.com. doi:10.5406/illinois/9780252040498.001.0001/upso-9780252040498. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "2014 Union Hall of Honor". Illinois Labor History Society. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "The Polk School – Women's Leadership Development and Labor Extension – LAWCHA". Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ Teamsters, International Brotherhood of (2017-03-27). "Teamster Women in History: Regina Polk". International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "Regina V. Polk Women's Labor Leadership Conference". School of Labor and Employment Relations. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ admin (2017-03-20). "Four-day women's Labor leadership conference set for May 3". The Labor Tribune. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "Regina V. Polk: Breaking the Mold". American Postal Workers Union. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ Preston, Caroline (2018-03-08). "Teaching Class Solidarity". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ "Thomas Charles Heagy". prabook.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.