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Cook’s journey into union organizing

After graduating, Cook moved to Chicago and worked at the Midwest Women’s Center. A few years later, she and some college friends moved to Seattle where she worked as a clerical worker, at the time a common job for women. 

In Seattle, Cook became involved in the local branch of the recently formed 9to5, National Organization for Working Women, a clerical workers’ organization that advocated for changes in clerical working conditions. There, she learned how to run a meeting and speak in public, and once spent the day with Gloria Steinem escorting her to media interviews. 

When 9to5 formalized its status as a union for office workers rather than an advocacy organization with little to no power, Cook was offered a job. The union, called District 9to5, was affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and aimed to organize 20 million clerical workers nationally. 

“It was really an effort of a group of women who were like me, who were feminists, and who wanted to make a difference in women’s lives,” Cook said. 

Cook worked on one of 9to5’s first campaigns organizing office workers at the University of Washington. For the next eight years, she did this same work at organizations across the country. One of Cook’s biggest motivating factors for doing this work was her mother. 

“I watched my mother’s life and how she struggled,” Cook said. “She joined a union at her factory when I was a kid, and I got exposed to unionism through her. I believed in unions because of my mother.” 

Challenges and wins throughout Cook's career 

Union organizing is a field of work not without its obstacles. During the anti-union movement in the 1980s, Cook encountered many union busters and powerful corporations. While 9to5 found success in organizing the public sector, the private sector proved more difficult.  

“We fought against money and power trying to defeat the work we were doing,” Cook said. 

Cook also experienced the challenges that came along with working in a man’s world, especially when she and her colleagues were younger. 

“I came into the labor movement through 9to5, a women’s organization, so I didn’t experience it as a man’s world at first,” Cook said. “Once we became a union and were part of the traditional male-dominated hierarchy, we started learning what it meant to be discounted, not promoted, and even sexually harassed right inside of our own unions.” 

Cook is thankful that the environment has changed since her younger years in the field. Today, women are leading unions across the country, including her own, SEIU, which recently elected the first African American woman to be their leader. 

After campaigning for eight years, Cook returned to Seattle to take a more permanent position as the president of the Seattle 9to5 chapter of SEIU. In 2005, the union organized 10,000 childcare workers, which is the achievement Cook is most proud of. 

“That work was important and necessary, and it still is,” Cook said. “We were able to bring the childcare workers together and help them find their voice. We bargained probably the most impactful work contract I’d ever bargained in my career at SEIU, and it was just a huge deal to make that happen.” 

Later, Cook served on the SEIU’s International Executive Board as International Vice President and eventually went on to work at Cornell University to teach in their Industrial Labor Relations program, retiring in 2023. 

Reflections and impact of Lake Forest College 

Cook’s impressive, inspiring career undoubtedly changed thousands of people’s lives for the better. She is especially proud of her work at 9to5. 

“I'm proud that we created a union that was different than other unions—run by and for women—and that operated differently than other unions,” Cook said. “It shook up the labor movement structure a lot.” 

Through all the challenges she faced, what kept her going was knowing her work was improving women’s lives. 

“The most rewarding part of the work I did was to watch a female worker who was low on the totem pole and not respected or trusted grow in her confidence and her ability to fight back and not be afraid to speak up for her rights,” Cook said. “I saw women’s lives change because of their union activity, and I loved watching that transformation over the years.” 

Cook and her colleagues’ work at 9to5 was so notable that a documentary was created to tell their story. “9to5: The Story of a Movement” came out in 2019 and was directed by Oscar winner Julia Reichert and Oscar and Emmy-winning Steven Bognar. To view the documentary, please click here. 

Ultimately, Cook’s time at Lake Forest College affected her life in a way she could have never expected. Her studies, extracurricular activities, and internships gave her the opportunity to view her mother in a different light. 

“At Lake Forest, I was able to socially and politically analyze what it’s like to be poor and working class in our country, and I could see where my mother fit into that,” Cook said. “The College gave me a way to think about the world and my mother and my life that I would never have had otherwise.” 

Cook’s Lake Forest College education also gave her the knowledge and tools she needed to take on the world and make real change.

“I completely give Lake Forest College, the faculty, and the experiences I had there the credit for what I did with my life and the political impact I wanted to have on the world,” Cook said.