Power At Work Power At Work Blogcast #35: Labor Organizers Roundtable w/ Indira Mohan, Sarah Bright, & Juan Eldridge
In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Sarah Bright, Organizing Director at SEIU 925; Juan Eldridge, Assistant Organizing Director at IAMAW; and Indira Mohan, Associate Director of Organizing at AFL-CIO/AFSCME DC 37 to talk about how to become a union organizer, why union activism is increasing, and how to confront employer opposition to worker organizing.
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Juan Eldridge is an Assistant Director of Organizing for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Juan comes out of the Aerospace industry where he was an aircraft mechanic for Cessna Aircraft Textron Aviation for thirteen years. During his tenure there he was elected to numerous different Union positions and roles within Local Lodge 774 including steward, trustee, negotiator, and Assistant Plant Chair. Juan went on to become a District Representative and Organizer at District 70 where he remained for three years and continued working internal and external organizing. In 2015 Juan was promoted by IAM International and became a Special Representative in the Organizing Department. In 2018 Juan became a Grand Lodge Representative and on January 1st of 2024 Juan was appointed Assistant Director of the Organizing Department by the IAM International President.
Born and raised in New York City, Indira Mohan comes from a proud union family where she was exposed to the power of a union at a very young age. Following in her father's footsteps, Indira has spent the last twenty-two years working in labor. After being promoted to a Union Representative at DC 1707 where she enforced and negotiated collective bargaining agreements, Indira took her skills to the federal sector, where she worked for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) as a National Organizer. She eventually had the opportunity to return to DC 1707 to lead their Organizing Department and soon thereafter they unified with their sister union District Council 37, AFSCME where she is currently the Associate Director of Organizing. Indira is a graduate of Penn State University where in 2021 she received both her Bachelor's of Science in Labor and Employment Relations and her Masters of Professional Study in Human Resources and Employment Relations. Her greatest accomplishments include navigating life with her wonderful husband and being a mother to her amazing son and daughter, who are enthusiastically embracing the negotiating phase of their childhood.
Sarah Bright is the Organizing Director at SEIU Local 925 in Seattle WA. She comes to organizing from rank and file union membership, has been a union member since 1992, and has been privileged to organize with workers as union staff for 20 years. SEIU Local 925 is an education union, representing workers who are educators at all levels, from early learning professionals, to non-instructional K-12 workers, to higher ed staff and faculty, non-profit and local government workers as well. Sarah's main focus as a director is ensuring that 925's growth campaigns are worker-centered and led, and is currently gearing up for a forthcoming fight to fund structural solutions to the childcare crisis, starting with winning living wages and health care benefits for ALL early learning and childcare professionals.