Union: Community Encouragement

Union: Community Encouragement

In this video Jerry Nichols describes how Deaf community members encouraged union membership.

Zilvinas Paludnevicius

Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center Collection

2022

This Item has been made available for educational and research purposes by the Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center at Gallaudet University. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You may need to obtain permission for your intended use if your use is otherwise not permitted by the copyright and applicable related rights legislation. For specific information about the copyright and reproduction rights for this Item, please contact the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center: https://www.gallaudet.edu/drs-john-s-and-betty-j-schuchman-deaf-documentary-center

American Sign Language

Jerry Nichols: While at Gallaudet I also socialized with people outside of Gallaudet, at Deaf club. Many Deaf printers were there.At the same time, at Gallaudet, there were many printers too, they attended Gallaudet and worked. In fact, one of my roommates was a printer. And he explained what it was like as a printer. He said it was easy to get work and I was interested. One thing I liked was you didn't need to interview. For Deaf people it's considerably harder to get work or to get a job. In the summer, it might be a little easier, but to get your preferred job is really hard to do. So at that time I decided to look for and try to get an ITU card. That was signed like this: PULL-CARD. I asked my friends how to get the ITU car because many of them had done it. So at that time I went, I decided to go to one town in Indiana. There I finished signing papers. Two months later ITU sent me a letter congratulating me on becoming a member. At that point I knew I was ready to enter the union. So I drove from Washington DC, Gallaudet, to Indiana. I arrived and they gave me a yellow card, which is called a TC or travel card. I was thrilled. I then went back to Washington DC and walked in the door, excited as could be, with the card purposely sticking out of my wallet for everyone to see. All the Deaf asked me how I got it. I explained I got it the same as the previous people had done. I sometimes I joked that I got my TC from a cereal box. I opened a cereal box and there's a prize inside, that's how I got my card! I don't have to explain more.

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