Season 4 Episode 21: Best Practices in Trauma-Informed Leadership- Trauma’s Impact on the Labor Movement: Union Leadership, Collective Organizing & Working Class Solidarity with Ron Ruggiero

I speak with former union president, Ron Ruggiero, who shares his insight about his new found freedom, the power of the "pause", and the seduction of the achievement hamster wheel. Ron also explains his theory on the individual trauma within both the working class and the labor union movement as well as the link between trauma and economic / racial justice.

"Growing up working class, there is also a stigma about this stuff.  There's a little bit about the working class we gotta be tough,.. we're tougher than them.. there's a whole design and system to send these messages"

After a thirty-year, hard-charging career in the labor movement, Ron Ruggiero left his role as President of SEIU 105 in 2022. A friend recommended he read, “The Body Keeps the Score” by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. For the first time, he learned that he had suffered trauma from his childhood “woke up to” the enormous impact of how his unrecognized and untreated trauma had influenced his leadership, his relationships at work and at home, and his behavior patterns that were unhealthy and harmful. As Ron’s individual healing got underway, he quickly turned curious about how trauma impacts the multi-racial, working-class labor movement as a whole such as organizing collectively, leading democratic unions effectively, and building the solidarity needed to take on the power of concentrated corporations to win an equitable life. Ron believes trauma-awareness is the key to solving the enormous economic, racial, and other disparities in our society. Ron hopes his story and the newness of his healing journey can inspire and help other leaders and members of the working class begin their own healing journeys.