DIVERSITY AT WORK: UAW Local 3055 members Cori Schuman, left, and Deb Taylor wear UAW shirts with "YES UNION!" in sign language.
Rollie Workman is about as unconventional a union leader as you can get.
Just look at the way the president of UAW Local 3055 in Columbia City, Ind., runs his union meetings.
Rather than situating himself up on the stage behind a microphone and podium, Workman is right down there on the meeting floor with the membership. He is constantly roaming about the room, moving from member to member as each addresses him.
"The hardest part of my job is understanding exactly what people want," he freely admits.
Listening to the members is a big part of any union leader's job, but for Workman, it's huge. He is deaf. Getting close to the membership isn't just good political advice, it's an absolute necessity for him so he can read their lips.
In the union hall, hearing staff take his phone calls with him in the room nearby. They repeat the questions callers have, and he speaks out his answers.
Workman wasn't born deaf. Suffering from bilateral progressive nerve deafness, Workman lost his hearing at 43. But age didn't make his disability any easier to deal with.
"Forty three years of hearing was over now. Silence was not golden for me at all," he told a reporter this year for the Deafness Research Foundation's publication.
His struggle to overcome the anger, depression and economic hardship that came along with his condition has made Workman an advocate for all people with disabilities.
Recently, Workman sent a letter to the IAmTheUAW.org site in which he wrote: "Those with hearing impairments are also a valuable asset to the UAW and to their employers. As with all people they have great ideas and thoughts to share with all members."
In fact, Workman had a pretty good idea of his own for how deaf UAW members can become involved with their union. Beginning with Local 3055 and with early support from Region 3 Director Mo Davison, the UAW nationwide is now adopting Workman's idea of every local maintaining an interpreter's list.
This is a list of friends or relatives of UAW members who know sign language and are willing to volunteer to help translate for the hearing impaired at union meetings or wherever they are needed.
On IAmTheUAW.org, Workman also shares a pretty good idea he had for a union public relations campaign:"The news media always paints us as money hungry. … This would be a hard picture for the news media to twist: Two UAW members … wearing UAW shirts and signing to each other. This would not only show that the UAW not only welcomes all members, but that these members are a part of everything that the UAW becomes involved in."
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