40 Conferences Strong ATU - Women’s Caucus Marks a Milestone in Niagara Falls
Four decades ago, a small group of women decided the ATU needed a space built by them, for them. This June, that same spirit filled Niagara Falls, NY, as hundreds of sisters, siblings, and allies gathered for the 40th ATU International Women’s Caucus Conference, a three-day reminder that this movement has never once lost its purpose.
The Doors Open
The conference kicked off with International President John Costa welcoming every delegate who made the trip. From the moment the room filled, there was a sense that this gathering carried extra weight this year. Forty years of organizing, mentorship, and hard-won victories, all converging in one place.
Costa’s message set the tone early. The women in that room are leaders, advocates, and the backbone of Locals across North America, and their work deserves recognition. Let’s go do it, Costa told the crowd, and with that, the Caucus was officially underway.
A Call to Arms
Opening the morning session on Friday, Costa didn’t soften the moment. “The world outside these walls is not friendly to working women right now,” he told the room. “Rights are being dismantled. Protections are being stripped away. But they’ve never met this ATU Women’s Caucus. Forty conferences in, and this movement isn’t tired. It’s sharper and stronger than ever.”
Forty years of Caucus history is forty years of women building power inside a labor movement that didn’t always make space for them and doing it anyway. Sisters who’d been coming to this conference since the early years sat next to first timers who just started organizing at their Locals. This Caucus was built by women who refused to wait for permission, and it’s still being built that way.
Handling Business
By Saturday, the room had shifted again. Delegates dressed in red for a visual show of unity and force that made clear this was a Caucus that came to work, not just to reflect.
The final day carried the business that keeps this organization moving forward. Caucus proceedings, the presentation of the Red Slipper Awards honoring women who’ve gone above and beyond for their sisters and Locals, and the swearing-in of officers who will carry the Caucus into its next chapter.
By the time the gavel came down, the conference had covered a lot of ground, from Costa’s opening welcome to a direct address on the political climate facing working women and closed with a formal changing of the guard. But what stuck with people leaving Niagara Falls wasn’t any single moment. It was the accumulation of forty years in one room. The awards, the new officers, the red dresses, and the reminder that this space still matters exactly as much as it did when it started.
What Comes Next
Forty conferences is not a small number. It’s four decades of ATU women showing up for each other, building the kind of internal power that turns into real change on the shop floor, at the bargaining table, and in the halls of government. This year’s gathering made clear that the Caucus isn’t interested in slowing down to celebrate the milestone. If anything, the anniversary sharpened the point Costa made on day two that the challenges facing working women right now are real, and this Caucus intends to meet them head-on.
The new officers sworn in on the final day now carry that charge forward. So does every delegate who left Niagara Falls and headed back to a Local somewhere in the U.S. or Canada, ready to put what they learned into practice.
Forty years in, the ATU Women’s Caucus is a living, breathing, and growing force, and based on what happened in Niagara Falls, the next forty are going to look a lot sharper, stronger, and entirely unwilling to sit this fight out.