How women organizers used Berger-Marks grants
Groups & research funded by Berger-Marks
Women organizing women:
special report
The Foundation:
Welcome to the web site
of the Berger-Marks Foundation!
If
you want to help workers -- and especially women workers -- join labor
unions, you've come to the right place.
The Berger-Marks Foundation, whose mission is to help organize women into unions, provides both financial support and camaraderie to people and organizations doing that work. Through this site you can now apply online for grants, and learn about people who have received grants. The site also features useful resources for women organizers.
Why
focus on women? As academic expert on union organizing, Dr. Kate
Bronfenbrenner, puts it: “Women now make up nearly half of the
U.S. labor force. And women are significantly more likely to join
labor unions than men – especially if the lead organizer is a woman.”
The Berger-Marks Foundation, created in 2003 to honor the memory of Edna
Berger, the first woman organizer for The Newspaper Guild, and her
husband, successful songwriter Gerald Marks.
The Foundation gives grants that have supported many innovative organizers, organizing groups, and academic/research projects.
On this site, you will find other resources too -- facts and links to useful sites on women workers and organizing in various occupational groups, helpful tips from women organizers, two full-length reports (Women Organizing Women and Union Organizing Among Professional Women Workers) and inspiring stories of women and groups that have used grants from the foundation to advance organizing efforts.
We hope you find the information helpful, and will come visit us again. More important, we hope you will put your energies and our money into more and better union organizing, helping to bring the Union Advantage to women workers.
How to contact us
Phone: (202) 243-0133. Or to send an email,
Address: 4301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 108
Washington, DC 20008
Where we came from
The Foundation is inspired by Edna Berger -- a pioneer for women's rights and the first woman lead organizer for The Newspaper Guild-CWA. It is named after her and her husband, the legendary Tin Pan Alley song-writer Gerald Marks who bequested his fortune to set up the Foundation.
Berger was a feisty, remarkable woman and first-rate organizer of newspaper unions who paved the way for other women, including members of our Foundation board. Find out more about Berger.
When Berger died in 1996, Louise Walsh, a reporter who had evolved into a union activist and educator herself, set up a scholarship fund in Berger's name, aiming to honor this "decades-long mentor." Walsh invited other pioneering women unionists to serve on the board, and they launched the fund by kicking in $2,000, plus small donations from a few Newspaper Guild activists.
Berger's widower Gerald Marks was impressed and invited Board member Linda Foley, then president of The Newspaper Guild, to visit him in NYC. Meeting her impressed him even more; when he died shortly thereafter, he left three-quarters of his estate to the group, and the Berger-Marks Foundation was born. It was funded by royalties from Marks' prolific Tin Pan Alley catalogue, including his most famous song, "All of Me." Hence, the musical note in our logo. Most of the catalogue was recently sold to Sony; and the proceeds will enable the foundation to support more organizing and research.
Meet Edna Berger -
You
would have enjoyed knowing her
Click here to learn more,
including comments by Louise Walsh
"All
of me"
Hear the song that made it happen
The Berger-Marks Foundation Trustees:
Louise D. Walsh, Chairperson.
Special Assistant to the Executive Director for Global/Outreach (retired), AFL-CIO/ Solidarity Center
Linda Foley, President.
Former President, The Newspaper Guild-CWA
Carolyn Jacobson, Secretary-Treasurer.
Director, Cervical Cancer Prevention Works, Coalition of Labor Union Women
Kevin Burton, Trustee.
Instructor, Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local
26
Yvette Herrera, Trustee.
Senior Director, Education and Communications, Communications Workers of America
Kitty Peddicord, Trustee.
Vice President Emerita,
American Federation of Government Employees
Site designed by Nancy Brigham, UAW Local 1981 member & former Newspaper Guild member