Women's History Month Profiles: Jackie Anklam

This year, for Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women’s history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today’s profile is Jackie Anklam.

Jackie Anklam of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9899 in Saginaw, Michigan, is a true woman of steel. An environmental technician at St. Mary’s Hospital, she is among the essential workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic going to work every single day to make sure others get the care they need. While doing her job, she also represents hundreds of steelworkers at Ascension St. Mary’s. Anklam, a member of the USW’s Health Care Workers Council, fought for respirators and personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning supplies and gowns for those on the front lines. The fight became personal when Anklam’s father died of complications of COVID-19 in a Michigan hospital that ran short of PPE. Activism is nothing new for Anklam. In 2017, she won a USW Cares Jefferson Award for her heroic work bringing safe drinking water to the people in Flint, Michigan, when a state of emergency was declared due to water contamination.