When Fallon Ager-Norman, heard she was being asked to be parade chair of the New York City Central Labor Council’s massive Labor Day parade, she said it blew her away to think of how far she’s come since her first parade in 2001 when she was just out of high school.
Ager-Norman, who serves as the regional director for the United Food and Commercial Workers’ (UFCW) northeast district and on the union’s International Executive Board matches the tone of parade in enthusiasm and gratitude.
In keeping with the theme of the parade, one of the country’s largest and oldest Labor Day customs, she expressed her appreciation for the hard-won history of the labor movement, and her commitment not to take its gains for granted. The parade is a time to re-center
the fight for economic justice.
“You leave there feeling reinvigorated and just wanting to reaffirm your commitment to the movement,” Ager-Norman told LaborPress.
Ager-Norman rose to one of the top positions at the International level of the UFCW after starting as a clerk at RWDSU Local 338. When she started out, it was simply a summer job she took on as she pursued a degree in nursing. It turned out she was in for the long haul.
“I had no idea what a union was. When I heard union, I thought like, credit union,” she said, adding that since both of her parents were self-employed she never was exposed to the labor movement growing up.
But she took to her role quickly. Whenever there was an opportunity to do something extra, she would volunteer, and within a couple of months she ended up assisting like the executive assistant in the office, before later deciding to jump into the field as an organizer on the campaign to organize Duane Reade stores. She cut her teeth in that campaign visiting worksites, educating workers about their union rights and trying to sign them up with palm cards.
After some administrative roles with UFCW after organizing, Ager-Norman eventually got back into working on campaigns as a union representative, which she remembers as one of her favorites roles. She spent the majority of her time working as a service rep, a field rep, and then a field director in charge of the field staff.
“I remember when I got notified that I was gonna be promoted to field director, it happened like at a staff meeting, and I just broke down in tears. I was happy about the promotion, but I realized that it meant I had to give up my territory,” she said.
Ager-Norman began working with the international in 2016 and took on the role of regional director in 2021 — a position she has used to boost organizing drives across the northeast.
Reflecting on what her goals are for the coming year, she said “it’s always organizing.”
One major industry of focus is cannabis. Eight out of the 20 locals in her purview are organizing cannabis shops, which means securing contracts, getting labor peace agreements and fighting for stronger legislation and apprenticeship programs.
“This is a brand new industry. We’ve got a lot of shady employers out there — employers that try to pay workers in weed and try to circumvent regulations and put workers at risk,” she said.
Other campaigns include non-food retail like workers at H&M and Zara, and of course, the union’s bread and butter, food retail.
A particular campaign of pride for her was UFCW’s decade-long effort to provide a path to unionizing New York state’s agricultural industry — a sector made up largely of migrant workers who were excluded from the state’s labor laws until former Gov. Cuomo signed the Farm Workers Bill into law in 2019. UFCW organized the first farm workers in the state after that bill was signed.
“We’ve been doing our due diligence in going around the state in all these rural towns educating the worker because a lot of folks don’t know the rights they are afforded under this act,” Ager-Norman said.
The parade is a time for UFCW to celebrate these campaigns and counterbalance the extent to which “unions are undervalued or not credited for what we’ve been able to bring to society.” Fortunately for those in the labor movement, Americans’ pro-union sentiments seem to be coming back around. Approval of unions and enthusiasm to vote for them at their workplaces have boosted in recent years.
The question for Ager-Norman: “How do we capitalize on that and build brand recognition?”
