Nema Brewer is one of the founders of KY120, a local in Kentucky that grew out of a protest against pension changes and became a force in state politics. Brewer spoke at OSEA’s Conference in June – wearing her trusty ballcap – about how Kentucky union members are facing a tough fight since their state passed “right-to-work” laws. “Right-to-work” is a misleading term that really means you have no legally protected right to form a union and can be terminated from employment for any reason. Brewer now works full time as a labor activist, but she was a classified employee when she first got involved in politics. She calls herself an “accidental activist” because she started out supporting her father in his labor activism and found herself drawn to the movement.
This Q & A has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Can you describe the process of becoming an "accidental activist" for you?
A: I started realizing that I had basically pushed off my responsibility as a member just by thinking that if I pay my dues and maybe show up for the Christmas party every year, that was enough. And it wasn’t going to be enough. We were in a dog fight in our state for worker’s rights, our pensions, for dignity, respect on the job, for everything. And I just started realizing this is my union too and I have to get more involved. And if they’re not doing what I think they should be doing, I need to be involved and say something and I need to show up. I guess it kind of all snow-balled from there.
I learned something along the way, which is: you can do something when you speak out. You can do big things. Because other people are probably feeling the same way, but if you don’t speak up, you don’t know.
For me, it was the right time, the right moment and it was the right message. Which is: rank and file is done, we’ve had enough and no one is saving us but us. Something just hit and it was a call to action, thankfully not just for me, but for a lot of people in this state.
Q: Are there messages you find resonate best in a right-to-work environment?
A: Well, first of all, I think some people think "right-to-work" means automatically you cannot unionize, that unions are completely illegal and all these other things, but that’s not what it means. What it means is that they don’t have to pay for your work (as a union representative). Which, lets face it, you gotta have money to do a lot of the work that needs to be done.
The first thing that scares people is they think it’s never going to be able to happen because of such and such but what we have to do, and what we have been doing here in Kentucky, which is a right-to-work state, is we have been explaining to people exactly what it is that we offer. Not services that we offer, not liability insurance or anything like that, what is it we offer? What we feel like we are offering our folks in Kentucky is hope. We feel like we are offering them hope that they can actually have a contract, a contractual say in their jobs.
Q: You've been very successful at building support. How do you find allies?
A: We are embedding ourselves in our local community here in Fayette County… We want our community to know that we are just as much on their side as we are on our staff’s side. We lost a lot of community during COVID and there’s a lot of people who don’t trust each other anymore, right? We want to be involved in our community and that includes issues that affect our kids. The affordable housing issue, we’re all up in that right now because it matters. So, when people turn around and say, 'Well that teachers’ union, they’re only doing it for this reason or that reason,' no it’s not, it’s because we actually have a vested interest in the community that we serve. When you’re an established local, you can easily fall back into just living off what you’ve already done. But you’re not reinventing where you need to be in the time of “right-to-work” stuff, so we have to sell why we are important to members and the community.
Q: Do you have advice on building trust and engagement?
A: We are allies, not just transactional allies. We see the same things (the community) sees. In fact, we see them first. We know what a community problem is before the community realizes it’s a problem because it comes into the classrooms first. So, we’re looking at it from that kind of lens: how can we improve our whole community not just improve our working conditions? I would suggest that. Get back to the basics. Community, families, kids, staff, those are the basics.
If the community trusts what you’re saying, it’s much easier to have conversations with the district because you have that backing.
Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: An elected friend of mine told me once that I’m an idealist and that’s why politics drives me crazy. I had never thought of myself as an idealist until she said that and now, I’m like ‘I don’t know, maybe I am an idealist.’ I think that things should work for the right reasons, that people should just do right no matter what the circumstances are. What keeps me motivated is the possibility of better, the hope for more. What keeps me motivated is seeing other people rise and find their voice and put their foot down and say ‘no, I don’t have to take this’. What makes me motivated is seeing folks all across the country that are doing the work, and it’s the same work and the solidarity we have with each other. And, really, I think what motivates me is that it’s the right thing to do. Public education is the right thing to do.