Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2019

60 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestOfMP.com feature B orn and raised in New York, Erin McKee worked long days as a flight attendant — usually 24- to 30-hour shifts, but, when she and her fellow flight attendants took their allotted six hours of rest, conditions were often subpar, making it hard to get the rest they needed. “When you have a union, it gives you a voice to speak out, so we decided to organize,” she recalled. McKee testified before congress and negotiated with them for better conditions. Her work paid off. “They finally passed that we could not be scheduled for a certain number of hours, though that didn’t mean you didn’t work them,” she added. The single mom moved here in 1996 to be closer to family. She became president of the SC AFL-CIO in 2013 and now works with unions across the state. “People have jobs, but are they good jobs? Having a union can make it a good job. We owe it to the next generation to leave them in a better situation.” Photo by Jess Wood. . .