Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Alumni Updates
  4. »
  5. Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, Yoko

Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, Yoko

Group of people at a dinner table

Communications specialist
Washington Education Association
2009

When I attended the HTUP, I was a member leader (local president) and also active in my union’s international (Newspaper Guild and CWA). About a year later, our local’s one staff person left and I became the Administrative Officer (AO), which meant I handled everything from negotiating contracts to representing members in discipline to answering the phones to making sure per caps were paid. I did that until 2012, when I went to work for PTE Local 17 (Now Protec 17) as a union representative for state workers at Washington’s Department of Transportation, State Patrol and Department of Licensing. In 2017, I combined my union experience with my journalism background and became a communications specialist for SEIU 775, which represents home care workers. In early 2020, I went to work in comms for the union sister org, SEIU 775 Benefits Group, which handles training and benefits for members. Since December 2021, I have worked as a communications specialist at Washington Education Association.

What impact has the HTUP had on your life/career?    A couple of the most important things that HTUP gave me were: Context and understanding of what else is happening in the wider world of labor. This came from both the instructors and my fellow students. Great lifelong friendships with others who share the same values.


CONTACT INFORMATION

23003 Lakeview Drive, #107, Mountlake Terrace, WA, United States, 98043