Bess Watts and Anne Tischer receive the Mother Jones Award

On Dec. 8, the Rochester Labor Council presented Bess Watts and  Anne Tischer of MENY-Rochester  and Pride at Work AFL-CIO with the “Mother Jones Award for Sacrifice Above and Beyond” for their work on marriage equality.

Thanks to years of work with labor, every labor union in Rochester supported marriage equality actively with petitions, calls, personal letters and lobbying by almost every union leader. It was the key to obtaining GOP Senator Alesi’s vote.

To build relationships with union people, Bess and Anne made union rally signs, walked picket lines, cooked for striking workers, attended union events and spoke at every possible venue. Bess claims she was forced to drink beer with blue collar union guys for two years to get them on board… hence the “sacrifice.”