Years ago, a number of the staff members at the school where I work wanted to unionize. Knowing the power of having a union represent me and my fellow teachers, I volunteered my time to help spread the word to others at my job. I spent weeks knocking on doors with a union organizer and spoke to whoever was open to hear me. After many weeks of engaging in this outreach, there was just one more day left before it was time for all staff to vote on whether they wanted a union or not. That evening, I worked at union headquarters in Manhattan at a phone bank and called staff members at their homes to encourage them to vote the following day. One of the teachers was on a long-term absence from her job due to requiring time to recover from an illness. I spoke with her over the phone and told her that someone could pick her up from her home so that she could be driven to our school to place her vote, and then driven back to her home. She was thankful for this offer but then declined it by saying, “I’m just one person. My vote won’t matter”. I thanked her for her time, wished her well, and then ended my conversation with her.

The following day was the big day to vote at our school. Many staff members came downstairs to vote. When all votes were tallied and confirmed, the teacher assistants and other staff had won a union. However, the teachers at my school had lost having a union by one vote (due to different job titles and the rules associated with that, we had to have two separate unions, one for the teachers, and one for all other support staff).

When I found out that the teachers had lost having a union by only one vote, I immediately thought about that teacher whom I had spoken to over the phone just the night before and what she had said to me. You see, her vote did matter.