by Dave Somerscales

The struggle to change and grow as human beings is a commonly shared experience for many people. Not all of us choose willingly to undertake this journey. Sometimes we plod along the same path of habits, attitudes and beliefs for our whole lives. Others make the conscious decision to engage in the process of change. For some, change and growth is thrust upon them, ready or not.

Tina Campbell was a young woman who found herself caught up in this process as she took on a challenging struggle to improve her life. Along the way, she grew as a young woman, a mother and, eventually, as a leader. Sadly, this struggle cost Tina her life.

Tina was murdered June 25 in Madison, WI. She was 27-years-old.

Tina worked as a janitor for CleanPower in Madison. A single mom, she took the job three years ago as a means to help support herself and her then-infant son, Marcus. Her employer only offered part-time shifts, paying $7.50 an hour without health insurance benefits, making it difficult for her to support herself, much less begin to get ahead, especially in Madison where rents are typically high. During the three years she worked for CleanPower, she was never offered a raise. Tina wasn’t satisfied with her employment situation, but she stayed at CleanPower, unsure of exactly how to improve things there but needing the job to support her son.

A few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. After considering her options, Tina realized she would need surgery. Because she was without insurance, the state’s health care was required to pay the bill for the surgery and treatment. She recovered, but her future health was uncertain. She was afraid the cancer might return, and programs such as BadgerCare, the state’s main program for the uninsured, does not cover all expenses. Her son, however, was her primary concern. She wondered what would happen to him if she was incapacitated or if she died.

When she first encountered Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1 in the spring of 2004, she was unfamiliar with unions. Her initial skepticism was quickly overcome when she realized that fighting to organize a union offered her and her CleanPower co-workers their only real chance of improving their jobs and transforming their lives. It also offered her a glimmer of hope for her son’s future.

She learned more about the process of forming a union and began talking to her co-workers, many of whom were struggling in similar life experiences. It was not easy. Tina didn’t know many of her co-workers well, and some of them were difficult to reach, burdened by their own lives and responsibilities, and afraid of losing their jobs if they dared get involved in the organizing campaign. But Tina kept at it, encouraged by the SEIU organizers she met, Arnoldo Fabela and Erika Rosas, who would grow to become one of Tina’s closest friends.

The management of CleanPower eventually became aware of the conversations and meetings taking place among the janitors, and they reacted with predictable hostility. Tina’s immediate supervisors began to monitor her closely at the building where she worked in downtown Madison. Her cleaning work was carefully scrutinized. Any infraction, no matter how small was seized upon by her supervisors. She was approached more than once by a supervisor who expressed his dissatisfaction with her union activities and attempted to intimidate her into giving up the struggle, actions which violated labor laws. Charges were filed against the company, but the damage was immediate – many of Tina’s co-workers refused to talk to her, and getting them to come to informational meetings to learn about the union became more difficult.

Undaunted, Tina soldiered on. The harassment at work increased. She was threatened with transfer to another building. On numerous occasions she spotted managers or other CleanPower agents monitoring her comings and goings as well as her conversations at work. She believed that on several occasions she was followed to and from work by a CleanPower area manager.

Throughout this process, Tina was changing. When she began her work with SEIU she was a friendly but somewhat shy woman, who was uncomfortable speaking in front of groups of people and seemed to have low self-esteem. As the CleanPower organizing campaign progressed, however, she became more comfortable in her role at the forefront of the movement.

On December 10, 2004, International Human Rights Day, a rally in support of the janitors campaign was held on the steps of the state capitol building in Madison. More than 100 people turned out in the cold to show their solidarity with the janitors, including numerous activists, union members, local politicians, community supporters and a sizeable media presence. Tina, with no small amount of trepidation, bravely walked up to the microphone and addressed the crowd. With her son Marcus was by her side, she told the audience about her recent health problems and her concern for her and her son’s future. She spoke of her difficulties in overcoming both her own fear and that of her co-workers in going forward in the campaign, and of the reprisals they had suffered at the hands of CleanPower management. At times, it was difficult for her to speak; she paused to choke back her emotions and her words were delivered quickly, sometimes nervously. Although the speech was unpolished, it was sincere and courageous and quite possibly one of the hardest things she had ever done in her life. But it would get harder.

Tina was involved in a relationship with an older man, Marcus’s father, who was her off -again, on-again boyfriend since she was 14. He was 42 when they began seeing each other and they had moved into an apartment together after Marcus was born. Throughout the course of their relationship, he exercised an element of domination and control over Tina’s life, taking advantage of her low self-esteem, often feeding it. But when Tina became involved with the union campaign, things began to change. Her growing self-confidence did not go unnoticed by her boyfriend, who became threatened by her improved self-esteem and jealous of the attention she had received in the press and Madison community.

Busy with the union campaign and emboldened by the changes she recognized in herself, she tried to break off the relationship. Eventually she moved out and got her own apartment. She confided in Erika that the relationship was violent at times. She was afraid for herself, and, most of all, for Marcus’s safety. Still, she would not give up the struggle to organize CleanPower. There were more meetings and more rallies, and as the campaign became increasingly public, management backed off on their workplace harassment.

On June 15, 2005, Tina, along with one of her co-workers, Russell McDaniels, attended a Justice for Janitors rally in downtown Milwaukee. Nearly 100 people heard Tina talk about her hopes for the future and her desperate wish to have a union at CleanPower.

“It’s difficult enough being a single mother,” she said in another emotional speech. “We have tried to get a union, and because we’ve tried, CleanPower has harassed and intimidated me. … All we want is a union like you have here.”

After the rally she returned to Madison and to her work at CleanPower. Sometime on Saturday evening, June 25, her boyfriend showed up at her apartment. A violent struggle ensued. Luckily, Marcus was not there to witness the incident. Before leaving, her boyfriend shot and killed her. He turned himself in several hours later.

Anger and confusion followed the news of her death. A life was lost, violently and senselessly cut short, leaving a little boy without a mother and a father in jail accused of murder. An important leader in the janitors’ struggle was gone. While she lost her life during this struggle, her work was certainly not in vain.

Tina Campbell left an indelible mark in the world. Though her life was ended prematurely, her final year showed so much promise, took her places she never dreamed possible and introduced her to the hope of change and a better future. She gave her life for that possibility.

The CleanPower battle is not unique. Across the country, thousands of workers are engaged in similar battles to unionize their workplaces and change their lives. The struggle has never been easy; it is not going to get easier. Many will lose their jobs; a few may even give their lives for the struggle. Many will find their lives transformed for the better. Once we have mourned for Tina we must recognize that the CleanPower fight is not over. When we are tired of the struggle, distracted by our own concerns and perhaps ready to quit, we need to look to her life for inspiration to carry us forward as union leaders, workers, and activists.

Dave Somerscales is the Wisconsin representative for SEIU Local 1, met Tina Campbell in spring of 2004, when the CleanPower campaign was in its initial stages.