Vermont’s New AFL-CIO President Is a Democratic Socialist and Labor Reformer

AN INTERVIEW WITH
KATIE MAURICE
Katie Maurice is a Democratic Socialists of America member and labor activist. She was recently elected president of the Vermont AFL-CIO on a platform of boosting rank-and-file participation and building power outside the Democratic Party.

In this interview, conducted by Steve Early, Maurice discusses her own path to joining a union, becoming a DSA member, and, now reportedly, the youngest state labor federation president in the country.

STEVE EARLY
What led to your involvement in the labor movement?
KATIE MAURICE
After working on the administrative side of a private business for a few years, I was sick and tired of watching wages steadily rise for the men who were buddies with the boss while the women picked up all the slack for a fraction of their pay. I witnessed wage theft in the form of regular punch card adjustments by management and overt sexism and racism directed at the lowest-paid workers, who had no real in-house recourse for these abuses.
I didn’t want my sense of dignity checked at the door when I entered my workplace. So, when given the chance, I jumped at the opportunity to get the hell out of there. I wanted a job where I had a voice and power over my own working life and labor — where democracy extended into the workplace and everyone was treated like the human beings we are.
STEVE EARLY
What changed when you became an AFSCME member?
KATIE MAURICE
I joined AFSCME in early 2020, when I became a behavioral interventionist at the Howard Center, in Burlington, Vermont, our state’s largest social service agency, which has a staff of sixteen hundred. After COVID-19 hit, my coworkers and I were briefly furloughed. We got help from our union filing for unemployment benefits. When we were recalled to our jobs, navigating life as an “essential worker” providing face-to-face mental health services during a pandemic posed all kinds of safety risks.
I wanted a job where I had a voice and power over my own working life and labor — where democracy extended into the workplace and everyone was treated like the human beings we are.
So that summer, I became a union steward and helped secure stricter safety measures to protect staff working at a summer camp. By the next winter, I was elected to serve as vice president of our Local 1674, and the following year I became president. Currently, I serve as local secretary. Over the last three years, we have more than doubled our membership — largely through one-on-one conversations at work and home visits.
STEVE EARLY
What kind of social service work have you done at the Howard Center?
KATIE MAURICE
I’ve spent most of my time providing one-on-one behavioral support in public schools serving kids who have emotional, behavioral, developmental, and intellectual disabilities, from disproportionately poor and working-class families. Many of my fellow AFSCME members work directly with children and adults with a variety of disabilities in the community, in schools, residential facilities, and some workplaces. We also staff crisis programs, including those for substance use and recovery.
Every day, we are on the front lines of disaster capitalism, a Band-Aid that is sorely needed but never enough. While very essential, our work doesn’t address any root problems — like criminalization of poverty and homelessness or diseases like addiction that are often rooted in socioeconomic stressors. The lower-income Vermonters we serve lack universal healthcare, affordable housing and public transportation, access to education and secure employment, and leisure time and recreational spaces, not to mention opportunities to enjoy art and culture.
STEVE EARLY
Why did you join DSA?
KATIE MAURICE
I signed up in November of 2021 and remain a rank-and-file member of Champlain Valley DSA. I joined DSA because the root cause of so many of our problems, as a working class, is capitalism itself, which robs working people of the resources needed to survive and live freely. I think we need to build a different economy, that puts people over profits. In the meantime, we need to create a broad-based anti-capitalist, anti-fascist labor movement in Vermont.
STEVE EARLY
What made you decide to get involved in a state level affiliate of the national AFL-CIO, which is not the typical venue for labor activism by a young labor radical?
Read the entire piece on Jacobin.
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/vermont-afl-cio-katie-maurice-democratic-socialist-labor-reformer
Thank you Steve Early for the submission to North Star.