By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
April Sims and Cherika Carter will forever be connected when it comes to the history of the labor movement. Sims, who serves as President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and Carter, who was appointed as the Secretary Treasurer of the organization, are the first two African American women to hold both leadership positions at the same time.
Sims, a Tacoma native, has been instrumental in the labor movement, drawing inspiration from her own life experiences. Raised by a single mother, Sims witnessed firsthand the transformative power of a union job in lifting her family out of poverty. Overcoming her own challenges as a teenage mother and high school dropout, Sims’s journey into union membership significantly altered her life’s path.
“I learned at a young age the difference a good union job can make in the life of a worker, their families, and their communities. And that knowledge has driven my service in the labor movement, it is what drives my vision for the labor movement we can create, a movement that is bold and dynamic, inclusive and rooted in equity,” says Sims.
Carter, a native of Ohio and now living in Seattle, echoes this sentiment. Her union involvement began at the tender age of sixteen as a pharmacy technician, as she was influenced by the union-rich culture of the Midwest.
“I often tell folks it was discounted movie tickets that got me to walk into a union hall for the first time, but it’s the solidarity that keeps me coming back,” says Carter.
According to Sims, The Washington State Labor Council, (WSLC), AFL-CIO, which represents over a half million workers statewide, and as “the umbrella organization for all of the labor unions in the state,” is considered to be the local “voice of labor.”
“We bring unions together to prioritize our policies, to move political programs,” says Sims, who describes herself as “a proud, lifelong resident of the gritty city of Tacoma. “We are a place where unions can come together to tackle the challenges that we face and to come up with solutions.”
Sims, who is a local treasure in her own right, served as WSLC Secretary Treasurer from 2019 until 2023 and is the first woman to be elected President of the WSLC and the first Black woman ever elected to the presidency of an AFL-CIO state federation.
The daughter of single mother, Sims proudly watched her mother build herself out of impoverishment by securing a union job, which had a lasting impression on Sims and continues to fuel her vision for the labor movement.
Some say life is a vicious cycle as Sims found herself as a teenage mother who dropped out of school and was facing poverty. But Sims would find employment and become a union member just as her mother did, which changed the trajectory of her life.
“I was a teenage age mom and high school dropout, and it took me a little while to figure things out, go back to school, but it took me longer to shake the shame and stigma,” says Sims. “I grew up on the Hilltop of Tacoma and I was raised by a single mother. It was my mom’s union job that got our family off of welfare and gave her economic dignity for the first time in her life.”
Sims started her career as a child support enforcement officer and was eventually persuaded by a co-worker to get involved with the union.
“The shop steward in my workplace was trained in leadership development and leadership identification and he kept asking me to get involved,” says Sims. “I think he saw something in me long before I saw it in myself and kept asking me to get involved so I did.”
After her stint working for the state, Sims join the WSLC in 2013 working her way up the chain of command for ten years. Starting as a council representative, she would then go on to serve as a legislative and political action field coordinator before becoming secretary treasurer and now president.
With the Midwest being the epicenter for union life, Carter, who has a degree in political science from Ohio State University, is well versed in the labor movement and unions. Working for Ohio’s AFL-CIO, the state federation of labor in Ohio and under then Petee Talley, the first Black women Secretary Treasurer of a state federation in the country, Carter has been in the trenches of the labor movement for some time.
“In 2011 in Ohio, then Governor John Kasich attempted to take away collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and so my union took me off of the floor to work on the campaign to protect bargaining rights for public sector workers in Ohio.”
Ironically, it was Sims who many years later convinced Carter to move to Seattle and utilize her skill set to help create a better working environment for workers in Washington state.
“I have been a union member since I was sixteen years old,” Carter adds. “Started working as a pharmacy technician, a member of the union in Ohio. So, I am a union member through and through and I was raised in a union household. So again, I would say a discounted movie ticket got me in the door, but the solidarity keeps me coming back.”
The WSLC’s primary vocations are political action, legislative advocacy, communications, and media relations, plus assistance with organizing campaigns.
Historically, the unions political influence is well documented, and Sims and Carter intend to utilize that power and stewardship entrusted to them to continue to help working class families and communities secure employment dignity, equity and inclusion, livable wages and to create a better life for themselves.
“We are the place where unions get together to leverage our institutionally recognized power to make life better for worker’s families and communities,” says Sims. “I am here because my labor movement and my union invested in me. Because the people around me saw leadership in me before I saw it myself, because they trained me, they created a space for me in the labor movement and I now know that I have that same responsibility to create the kind of labor movement that embraces all workers and create space for all workers.”
