Raised in a working-class family, the youngest of five children, Smith mostly grew up in the Seattle area. After graduating from Ballard High School, she attended community college and the University of Washington but never finished a degree, feeling out of place as a young working-class woman in a middle-class institution. In the 1980s she began working in the Washington State ferry system where, as a rank and file member of the marine division of the ILWU, the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific (IBU), she entered the labor movement. Advocating for women in what was then a mostly male trade, Smith fought for equal pay and became increasingly involved in her union, elected as a steward and serving on the union’s executive board. Her activities extended into her community as well, acting as president of the Puget Sound Coalition of Labor Union Women and chair of the 32nd District Democrats. A longtime member of the Bridges Center’s Visiting Committee Smith has served in this capacity in many ways – advising Center projects, hosting student interns, participating in conferences, and speaking in classes. Smith and former ILWU President Brian McWilliams have also established the Smith-McWilliams Endowment for Working Women’s Archives, a fund dedicated to assisting the Labor Archives of Washington in preserving the history of women workers and activists.
Topics: The IBU, The ITF, Enforcing Labor Standards, Women’s Rights, History of Women Workers and Activists, Campaign Organizing and Leadership, Local Politics
