Former Vikings Cheerleader Sounds Off for Working Families at AFL-CIO Convention

By Barb Kucera
Workday Minnesota

It’s not often you hear the words “cheerleader” and “labor movement” in the same sentence. Former Minnesota Vikings cheerleader Allison Drusch embodies both as a member-activist for Working America.

Working America is an organization for people who are not union members, but share common interests with the labor movement, such as good jobs, affordable health care and quality education. The group, which is a “community affiliate” of the AFL-CIO, has grown to 2 million members, including about 100,000 in Minnesota.

Drusch, a White Bear Lake resident, talked about her decision to join Working America in front of some 1,000 delegates to the AFL-CIO convention Monday.

“I joined Working America to fight for a better future and I feel unions are a better way to achieve this,” she said, while wearing a red t-shirt that read “I Am Working America.” She has been a member for three years.

In an interview with Workday Minnesota, Drusch credited her experience as a Minnesota Viking cheerleader from 1999-2003 with giving her the confidence to speak out. But she credits her family with building her interest in unions.

Her mother, Lynne Ekola-Harrington, is a registered nurse who helped nurses at Hennepin County Medical Center organize with the Minnesota Nurses Association. Her husband, Doug Drusch, is a member of Carpenters Local 87.

Drusch herself is a mother of two and works part-time, but is not in a union. She said Working America appeals to her as a good source of information and a vehicle to take action.

“It’s hard to know which opinions and sources you trust,” she said. “I trust their (Working America’s) research and their statistics.”

As a Working America member, Drusch has written letters and made phone calls to her members of Congress on issues such as health care reform and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions.

She told AFL-CIO delegates, “I look forward to many more opportunities to be a cheerleader for Working America.”