Having a child alters your life, it’s safe to say. But you won’t know how, exactly, until it occurs.
For SLU student Inneshia Hart, returning to work too soon after delivering her baby boy led her to become a union activist and then a staff organizer at SEIU 1199.
Today, Inneshia says she holds three full-time jobs: full-time mom, full-time union organizer, and full-time B.A. student in Labor Studies. But in 2012, Inneshia was a home care worker for sick and elderly patients, working right up until the birth of her son, Karl Jr. Due to her employer not submitting disability paperwork, she was required to return to work just three weeks later. Inneshia needed to keep her salary, so she did it – and her physical and mental health declined.
She reached out to her 1199 organizer, who offered help in the form of pursuing justice.
“She said, ‘Do you know about paid family leave? It’s something in New York State that they’re fighting for. I think with your story, it will help them to win,’” Inneshia recalled. “I said, yeah, put me in there, let me tell them what these suckers did.”
Soon she was telling fellow workers about the proposed law, getting petitions signed, and going to Albany to lobby. “And that year we won paid family leave. I was so grateful, even though it didn’t benefit me. It benefited other people who needed it,” Inneshia said. “And I was super happy that I worked so very hard to get those petitions. We went into nursing homes, we went into hospitals, we went into the night shift. It was crazy, but we got it passed and that was something I’ve always been proud of.”
After the Paid Family Leave Act, her next campaign was Fight for $15, a broad-based movement to raise the minimum wage, which also succeeded. (The minimum wage is now $17 per hour in NYC, Long Island and Westchester, and $16 per hour in the rest of the state.) As an active union member and a union delegate, Inneshia was happy to accept when 1199 offered her an organizing job 11 years ago.
Skilling Up
Inneshia was born in Belize and lived there through high school. Then she moved with her mother, stepfather, and two older brothers to the U.S. Eventually she took a few college courses at Hofstra University on Long Island. More recently, she took courses at SLU as a part-time student – then realized she wanted to finish her B.A. more quickly and went to full-time.
“I have been hands-on just doing my union job because it naturally came to me. But at SLU, it gives me structure. Now I know what certain abbreviations mean. I know more about how to organize. There’s a structure to how you organize. There’s a structure to how you rally. There’s a structure to labor history,” Inneshia said. “They have showed me a better way of how to organize.”
From her classmates, she’s learning about public sector organizing, as she represents home care workers in the private sector. “I know each contract is different, but I’m learning some of them can’t strike. We can, they cannot. I’m learning how their grievance process works. Some of the issues are the same, but the rules are different. The laws are different, the governance of your contracts when it comes to private and public sector.”
Inneshia is used to engaging with workers from all backgrounds, because home care workers are from all over: They are mostly women, and many are Caribbean, like herself, but also Chinese, Russian, Indian and Latinx. At SLU she’s encountering a different kind of diversity: “I’m learning that everybody comes from a different walk of life, different background, and they are fascinated to learn how labor works. And we’re all getting that here. So I’m learning from each one of them.”
Passing It On
Inneshia is 36 and lives in Brooklyn with daughter Shamaya, who’s almost 16, and son Karl, almost 14. As a relaxing hobby and side hustle, she makes and sells soy wax candles through her company, Lit Aroma.
If her three full-time jobs weren’t enough, she’s also president of the Long Island chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, tasked with reviving that chapter. She recently ran for an open seat within 1199 as well. Though she lost, she’s drawn lessons that she may apply to a future campaign.
From when they were little through the present, Inneshia’s kids have accompanied her to union events, raised their hands to ask questions, and pitched in on work projects. She’s proud to hear them describe her work to others – and she hopes that a lasting impression is being made.
“I hope one of them just fall into this field and carry on the legacy. I need that,” Inneshia said. “I need them to understand the labor field. I need them to know why we have sick days. I need them to understand why mommy can go on vacation and some people can’t. I need them to understand that the law is there, but you have to read it to learn it. You have to know your rights, so you will not be taken advantage of.” Spoken like only a true labor organizer can.