This December, the Cushing-Gavin Awards (CGA) recognizes SHARE’s own lead organizer, Janet Wilder, for her accomplishments. This recognition is a high honor -- the most respected labor award in our region -- and highlights Janet’s decades of dedication to the well-being of SHARE members. Although this year’s award ceremony was, for safety reasons, held virtually, Janet brought the warmth and dedication of SHARE members, organizers, and union reps into this year’s award presentation as she described SHARE members’ efforts in the past year.
Janet Wilder, SHARE Organizer, holding her Cushing-Gavin Award plaque. Established in 1967, the CGA represents a crowning achievement of a life’s work of labor activism. Janet’s leadership, perseverance, and compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic mirrors the commitment she’s shown for workers since helping to organize our union’s beginnings in 1997.
About the Cushing Gavin Award
Every year the CGA celebrates four awardees: one labor leader, one labor attorney, one management leader, and a neutral/arbitrator. The CGA Ceremony (which is typically a gala dinner event) is hosted by The Labor Guild, part of the Archdiocese of Boston, an organization that aims to provide training, assistance, and recognition to those in the labor-management fields. Janet was selected as the labor leader winner for this year’s 54th annual prize. Describing the occasion in her acceptance speech, Janet said the CGA event is a place where we can “recommit ourselves” to the labor movement and this work.
The Importance of Healthcare Workers
Throughout her acceptance, Janet described the changing and often overwhelming conditions since the onset of COVID-19. Janet and her co-workers on the SHARE team at UMass Memorial organize healthcare workers in over one hundred different roles -- roles that, as Janet points out, tend to be overlooked by the press when describing those who are essential to hospitals.
Partnership Matters
Janet also described SHARE’s Labor Management Partnership with UMass Memorial as a crucial tool for making sure SHARE members have a say in how their workplace functions. When direct caregivers participate in the design of healthcare, it leads to better outcomes for all, especially patients. (Besides, as UMass Memorial Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Bart Metzger put it in his congratulatory remarks to Janet: “There’s no business case for adversarialism.”) SHARE’s strategic partnership with the hospital aligns with the overall aims of the CGA and The Labor Guild to “foster a healthy labor-management climate.”
Janet’s devotion to true collaboration and collective problem-solving has changed the lives of many of us in Central Massachusetts. We’re grateful for her, and proud that she represents all of us with this recognition. Congratulations, Janet, and to everyone in the SHARE community!