CAROL GAY, DYNAMIC UNION LEADER AND ACTIVIST, DIES AT 76
CAROL GAY, DYNAMIC UNION LEADER AND ACTIVIST, DIES AT 76
Carol Gay, the President of the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council and frequent spark for demonstrations and picket lines in support of labor, the environment, civil rights, and peace, died on August 29, 2024, at 76. Even from her hospital bed as she was dying from Leukemia, Carol continued organizing upcoming events in support of various progressive causes. Earlier this summer she joined demonstrations against fossil fuels and in support of reproductive freedom, worker safety, and an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. Her last words were “forward ever – backward never!”
An indefatigable activist, Carol was fondly known as the Energizer Bunny of the New Jersey Labor Movement. The bosses weren’t always so kind. They called her a Union Thug due to her vigorous efforts to prevent busses carrying scabs from crossing picket lines. Over more than fifty years of activism Carol developed a lengthy rap sheet. She was arrested more often than she could recall for engaging in non-violent protest and civil disobedience for labor and other causes.
Most of all, Carol was a remarkable organizer, able to inspire people of all stripes to join a union or support the many causes to which she dedicated her life. She was a founding member of the New Jersey State Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), which led a successful campaign organizing more than 34,000 public workers into the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Following that historic victory, she joined CWA’s staff and rose to become the
New Jersey Area Director for CWA District 1 and a member of the CWA Public Worker National Bargaining Council.
Carol’s activism began as a student at Georgia College at Milledgeville (now known as Georgia College & State University) where she earned a Sociology BA. She became engaged in anti Viet Nam war protests and, especially, Civil Rights work. Following graduation, she went to work as a public school teacher in Sandersville, GA. Good teachers like Carol were sorely needed. Most of the white teachers had resigned rather than teach Black students in classrooms integrated by court order. Those teachers and most of the white students went to newly- established “Segregation Academies,” while Carol taught for two years in an integrated, majority-Black classroom in a formerly all-Black school.
Carol then moved to New Jersey where her labor career began on her first day of work in what was then known as the Camden County Welfare Board when she joined CWA Local 1084 which had recently organized the employees. She and other bargaining unit members soon concluded management was bargaining in bad faith to avoid an initial collective negotiations agreement. Carol helped lead a work-to-rule slowdown, and management suspended her and a few others late on a Friday afternoon. They returned with picket signs on Monday. The rest of the employees reported for work in the morning, but after lunch they all refused to cross the picket line. What followed was likely the first public worker wildcat strike in New Jersey history. After a day and a half it was resolved with the suspended workers returning to work and a union contract was eventually obtained. Carol soon became Vice President of Local 1084, a position she served in until joining CWA International’s staff.
Carol’s union work beyond CWA, included serving as the President of the Central New Jersey Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and as the coordinator of NJ Jobs With Justice. She became the President of New Jersey
State Industrial Union Council (IUC) in 2011 and served in that position until her death. The IUC is a coalition of unions that is in some ways the continuation of the pre-merger Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It represents the left wing of New Jersey labor and engages in solidarity work with unions and other progressive organizations fighting corporate greed, climate change, militarism, economic inequality, and other causes.
One of the IUC’s continuing projects is the Solidarity Singers, which Carol co-founded in 1995. The Solidarity Singers is a street chorus with the motto “Only a few of us know how to read music, but we all know which side we’re on.” It has sung for hundreds of picket lines, rallies, and demonstrations in its nearly 29 years of existence, and Carol has sung with them at nearly every one.
Throughout her life, Carol was passionate about supporting human rights, women’s rights, the environment, world peace, and economic justice. She has always been on the front lines in support of those causes. At the time of her death she was serving on the Board of the New Jersey Universal Healthcare Coalition (NJUHC), and as member of the New Jersey Coordinating Committee for the Poor Peoples Campaign. Over the years, her many leadership positions included serving as a Coordinating Committee Member for the New Jersey Committee in Support of South Africa’s successful campaign to remove Shell Gas Stations from the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway as part of the struggle against Apartheid; Coordinating Committee member of the New Jersey Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES); co-founder of Monmouth Residents for Immigrant Rights; Board of Trustees Member of New Jersey Peace Action; Chair of New Jersey Labor Against War; co-founder of the New Jersey Mobilization for Global Justice; Chair of the Stop Wal-Mart NJ Coalition; and co- founder of Jersey Shore Against the (Iraq) War. Carol was also a proud and active member of Code Pink and the Peoples’ Organization for Progress (POP).
In 2006, Carol ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress against the incumbent Chris Smith in New Jersey’s 4th District as the Democratic Party’s candidate.
Carol’s travels often furthered her activism. She was in Cairo on her way to Gaza as part of a labor delegation for peace in Palestine when demonstrations began in Tahrir Square. Then President Hosni Mubarak closed the border and revoked the delegation’s travel papers. Carol then joined the protests in Tahrir Square where she and her companions were nearly trampled when the police violently cleared the square. She was in Quebec for the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO), in Miami for the protests against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and at Fort Benning, Georgia for the protests against the School for the Americas. She also Occupied Wall Street. She travelled to Standing Rock in Indigenous Lakota Territory to join the protest encampments against the Dakota Access Pipeline in sub-zero weather. Wearing a boot cast, Carol also was among the group that walked fifty miles as part of Empower New Jersey’s campaign for a moratorium on the construction of all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Among her many honors, Carol was the Grand Marshall of the American Labor Museum/Botto House Labor Day Parade in 2000 and was awarded an honorary PhD by Rutgers Tent State University in 2005. In 2012, New Labor honored Carol at their Annual Dinner “for always fighting for the 99%.”
Carol was born on December 20, 1947 in Opelika, Alabama to Joseph F. Gay, a textile engineer and Elaine Spain Gay, a homemaker. She is survived by her older brother Joseph F. Gay, Jr. (Margaret Gay); her younger sister Robin Wooley (Dan Wooley); two nephews: Jason Wooley (Nicole Wooley) and Brian Gay (Kimberly Gay), a member of the PGA tour; two nieces: Katie Palmer (Ed Palmer) and Emily Wolfe (Nick Wolfe); and seven grand nieces: Rylee Wooley,
Reese Palmer, Levi Palmer, Jayne Wolfe, Ada Wolfe, MaKinley Gay, and Brantley Gay. Carol was married twice. Her 1972 marriage to Ken Gaskill, who she met in College, ended in divorce in 1976. Her 1984 marriage to Ron Fantini, who had been President of CWA Local 1365 in New Hampshire, ended with his 1994 death. She is survived by his daughters, Ronni Jeanne and Rebecca.
Carol’s Family and the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council (IUC) will host a memorial program for her with music by the Solidarity Singers and remembrances from Larry Cohen, Hetty Rosenstein, Larry Hamm, Ed Zipprich, members of her family, and everyone else who wishes to speak, on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 2 p.m. in the Reformed Church of Highland Park, 19 South 2d Ave., Highland Park, NJ 08904. Further information can be found at https://radicalcarolstribute.com
Condolences should be addressed to Carol Gay’s Family at her former address 747 Thiele Road, Brick, NJ 08724. Please do not send flowers.
Carol requested that contributions in her honor be made to Doctors Without Borders, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), New Jersey Peace Action, and Greenpeace. She also hoped unions and other organizations would join the IUC to continue her work.
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