Labor Profile: Union Summer Site Coordinator Jennifer Tate

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“I was born in solidarity,” says Jennifer Tate (r), site coordinator for the DC Union Summer intern program. The Michigan State graduate (’08) knew early on that she wanted to be a union member as well as an activist, growing up in a household fully engaged in the battle for workers rights and solidarity. Her mother, Eula Tate, was a lobbyist for the UAW for 20 years, as well as a city council member in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and father Ronnie Tate is a familiar front-desk face at the AFL-CIO. At school, Tate majored in political theory and constitutional democracy and went on to intern at AFGE and was herself a Union Summer intern in the summer of 2006. That fall, she worked on Jim Marcinkowski’s 2006 Congressional campaign and most recently she was a development associate at Project Vote. Tate looks forward to ensuring that each of the Union Summer interns has a fulfilling and inspiring experience working with the metro area labor movement this summer, and plans to continue her career fighting for labor solidarity in Washington after the program’s conclusion later this summer. “It's exciting to be on the other side of things as a (Union Summer) site coordinator," said Tate. "I now understand the significance of the work I did when I was a Union Summer intern.” – report/photo by Boaz Young-El, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern