“Before Organizing with the Union, I was like a little mouse in the corner, peep, peep; but now I’m a Roaring Lion!”
Helen Miller was born May 26, 1936 on her family’s farm in Louisville, Mississippi. Most of her youth was spent working on her family’s farm doing heavy physical labor, bringing in the crops, and picking cotton.
She graduated from Louisville (Colored) High School in 1955 and headed to Chicago looking for a job.
After her arrival in Chicago, Mrs. Miller found a job working in industrial laundries and worked in laundries for over 15 years.
Then in the late 70’s, Mrs. Miller began working as a homecare provider for the city of Chicago and state of Illinois’ Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS) caring for people with disabilities and seniors. She later also worked for private agencies caring for seniors under the state of Illinois’ Community Care Program (CCP).
She worked in homecare from the late 70’s until 2007 when she retired as a homecare worker and as President of SEIU (the Service Employees International Union) Local 880.
Mrs. Miller first got active in the union when she received a mailing from her co-workers asking her if she wanted to join together and fight for higher pay and benefits – Mrs. Miller later said “…when I got that letter I said ‘Sure! Who wouldn’t want to fight for higher wages, so I went on down to the union meeting!’”
From that first meeting in 1984, Helen became one of the first members of the then-fledgling Local 880 of the United Labor Unions (ULU), an independent union founded by the national community group ACORN to organize low-wage workers that other unions could not, would not or did not organize.
Helen was a very active union member of the union, serving in every capacity: first as a rank-and-file member, then as a member-organizer organizing her fellow members, then as a steward representing members on the job, then as a member political organizer working on political campaigns and then as an officer of the local – first as treasurer in 1986, then Vice-President in 1989, and finally rising to President of Local 880 in 1999, and served until her retirement in 2007. She retired as the longest serving President in the history of Local 880.
In addition, Mrs. Miller Was elected to the SEIU Illinois Council in 1999 and elected Sergeant-At-Arms in 2003.
The first campaign Mrs. Miller became involved in was a campaign to rid the state of the $1 per hour they were paying homecare workers in the early 1980’s when the minimum wage was $3.35. Since homecare workers were legally considered “independent contractors,” it was “legal” to pay them below the minimum wage. But Helen and her co-workers would have none of that and joined together with members from across the state, with community and labor allies and rented school buses, marched on the state capitol in Springfield holding mops and brooms, and testified at a special committee called by the legislature on a Local 880-backed bill to rid the state of the $1 sub-minimum wage. Mrs. Miller, who had never testified before the state legislature, later recounted how it felt to deliver testimony in front of those representatives: “…when it was my turn to speak I was really nervous. There were all these state legislators in their suits and ties and nice dresses, sitting high above us. I went up to the microphone and I said to them ‘I want you to listen to me, but I want you to listen with your hearts and not just your heads…’ and then I told them the $1 an hour was wrong and they should get rid of it.’”
And after Helen’s testimony, they did just that – they voted to abolish the $1 per hour minimum wage for the state’s homecare workers and raised the wage to the then $3.35 per hour minimum wage, plus added another .15 cent raise on top of it! This was the first raise ever won by Helen and her co-workers in the union and was the start of a long campaign for living wages and benefits for homecare workers in Illinois, led by Mrs. Miller.
As a homecare worker, Mrs. Miller was in great demand because of her compassion and sense of caring – she was so much in demand that many consumers would request her by name. She would frequently work for a whole day with her consumer(s) and then ride the bus or train down to the union meetings in the evening or weekends to volunteer and organize with her brothers and sister homecare workers.
The Local had its greatest period of growth during Mrs. Miller’s presidency, growing from only 7 members in 1983 to over 70,000 members by 2007, when she retired. When Helen and her coworkers first began organizing in 1984, they received their paychecks, hours and conditions of work from the state of Illinois. They filed at the State Labor Relations Board in 1985 for a union election, but were denied because the Labor Board ruled they were “co-employees” of both the state and the consumer and so were denied their rights to a union. Helen and her fellow members then had a decision to make: should they quit trying to organize this industry with bleak prospects for changing the law, or should they organize and fight anyway? They voted to organize anyway and began a 20-year campaign - signing up one member at a time and hand collecting dues - until they built enough strength in 2002 to elect a new Governor and change the state Labor Relations Action (SLRA). In 2003, the state legislature passed a new law – on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote - allowing Helen and her fellow Personal Assistants (PA’s) at the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) to organize under the state Labor Relations Act (SLRA). Helen led the bargaining committee for the first contract and when the state offered no raises for the first three years of the contract, Helen and her bargaining committee members said NO and organized and fought – again marching on the state capitol - until they won a 35% raise from only $7/hr in 2003 to $9.35 per hour in 2007. Over 23,000 personal assistants were covered under this contract and received these raises. Because of Helen’s efforts, these workers today earn $13 per hour and are covered by a Health Fund, and a training fund, and won many other benefits.
Helen also assisted the then over 40,000 home child providers organize with SEIU Local 880 in 1996, even though they had no legal right to organize. They likewise voted to organize anyway and it took them 9 years to organize their union until by 2005, they amended the state collective bargaining act, giving them a right to organize and winning their first contract with the state in 2006, winning a 35% rate increase and first-time health insurance coverage for the over 35,000 home childcare providers. These two huge victories brought SEIU Local 880 from about 10,000 members in 2002, to over 70,000 members in 2006.
As a leader of the SEIU Local 880 PAC, Helen also was very active politically and frequently knocked on doors to get out the vote, ran phone banks, and interviewed candidates for office. In 1995, she led the Local’s endorsement for a then barely-known Barack Obama when he first announced his intent to run for a state Senate seat on the Southside of Chicago – Local 880 was one of the first, and frequently the only local, to endorse Obama and turned out hundreds of volunteers to work on his campaigns. Helen worked on several of his state Senate and Congressional runs, as well as his run for US Senate in 2004. On the date of her retirement in 2007, then-Senator Obama sent Mrs. Miller a congratulatory letter saying:
“I am writing to say how honored I have been to have worked with you, and to witness the achievements of which you were a part as a union member, organizer, and President of SEIU Local 880. Your dedication has changed the lives of thousands of citizens, helped them receive higher pay, health care and benefits, and given them a share of the American dream. Not many union leaders can boast of any greater achievements on behalf of their members and the citizens of this state…”
But Helen didn’t stop there – she traveled across the Midwest, the East and West Coast, and the South, preaching the gospel of the union to hundreds of thousands of homecare and childcare providers. Because of her leadership and pioneering organizing, SEIU organized an additional 500,000 homecare workers and 100,000 childcare providers into their union by the time of her retirement in 2007. Along the way Helen was elected to the SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) at its convention in 2004 – she was the first homecare worker to serve on the SEIU International Executive Board. In addition, because of the local’s pioneering organizing and growth, it became the largest SEIU local in Chicago, in Illinois, and in the Midwest and the largest local of ANY union in those jurisdictions as well. Further, she was one of the first African-American woman to serve as President in a local of that size in the country.
Mrs. Miller was also a recognized leader in countless community campaigns, along with community allies Chicago ACORN and others, in the fight against predatory lending, and utility shutoffs, and for a living wage in Chicago and statewide that brought higher wages to hundreds of thousands of workers in Chicago and Illinois.
Among her other awards, Mrs. Miller was recognized as a 2004 recipient of the Ms. Foundation’s GLORIA award and a 2005 recipient of the Women’s E-News award for her leadership in ensuring that homecare workers are “invisible no more.”
In addition to all of these honors and awards, Mrs. Miller was a Woman of God and faithfully served in Bethany Church in Louisville, Mississippi.
Her spirit and strong faith was recognized by union and community members and her prayers at the beginning and end of many member meetings brought unity and faith to participants as well.
Helen’s spirituality led her to sing some of her favorite gospel songs and in 2003, when she and her co-workers were to sign their first collective bargaining agreement with the State of Illinois; she led busloads of members into the State of Illinois building and up to the Governor’s office singing one of her favorite songs, “Victory Is Mine,” as they marched through the building and rode the elevators up to the formal signing ceremony.
When reflecting on how the union had helped her find her voice, Helen reminisced: “Before Organizing with the Union, I was like a little mouse in the corner, peep, peep; but now I’m a Roaring Lion!”
She made life better for hundreds of thousands of homecare and childcare providers, she will be deeply missed.
