{"id":805,"date":"2010-02-20T14:09:27","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T20:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookcountypd.org\/blog\/?p=805"},"modified":"2010-02-24T09:34:29","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T15:34:29","slug":"assistant-public-defender-martha-fitzsimmons-1952-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/02\/20\/assistant-public-defender-martha-fitzsimmons-1952-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistant Public Defender, Martha Marie Fitzsimmons (1952-2010)."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"flag-at-half-staff\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wake and Funeral Mass Arrangements<\/strong> for Martha Fitzsimmons<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wake:\u00a0\u00a0Thursday Evening\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0February 25th<\/sup>, 2010<\/strong> McDonough Hall<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(Gleason Building)\u00a0\u00a02nd<\/sup>\u00a0floor 1101 Columbian Avenue Oak Park, Illinois\u00a0\u00a060302<\/p>\n

Visiting hours:<\/strong>\u00a06 pm through 9 pm At 7:30 pm, there will be a special service with<\/strong> prayer, sharing memories, and music.<\/strong> Everyone who wishes to share a \u201cMartha story\u201d is asked to write up a reflection and bring it on Thursday evening to share with family and friends. All stories are being collected to create a memory book for Rafa.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Memorial Mass:\u00a0\u00a011 AM\u00a0\u00a0– Saturday ,\u00a0<\/strong>February 27th<\/sup>, 2010\u00a0<\/strong> St. Giles Church<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(Columbian and Greenfield) Oak Park, Il. 60302<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reception<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0McDonough Hall immediately after the service.<\/p>\n

Some thoughts on Martha from Larry Spivack<\/strong>, President of the Illinois Labor History Society and Regional Director, AFSCME Council 31 and an AFSCME\u00a0organizer who helped\u00a0start this Local.<\/p>\n

About 25 years ago Martha Fitzsimmons joined a zealous group of advocates. They were Cook County Public Defenders, but they were more than that. They were a band of activists who sought to bring a Union to the Public Defenders Office. In doing so they were able to bring a much greater sense of dignity to the job, not just in material terms, but also in creating a sense of community that had been lacking for some time. By September of 1987 a ground breaking Agreement between the Public Defender and AFSCME\u2019s newest affiliate, the Cook County Public Defender\u2019s Association had created something almost unimaginable: It was a contract between the parties that made a pathway for a financially durable career as a Public Defender and made an organization that lives to this day with one of the best contracts for attorneys who are sometimes referred to around the country as the Peoples\u2019 Lawyers. Public sector lawyers around the country can, in part, thank Martha Fitzsimmons if they have competitive wages and benefits.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This Agreement would not have been reached or lasted as long without Martha Fitzsimmons. Martha was a hard bargainer, known to never mince words or to compromise without cause. Despite her strong opinions and ideas, Martha was one of the few who walked the walk and lived by her own words. Martha stayed active in the Union for the entirety of her career. If not out front on a bargaining committee or on the leadership team of the local union, Martha was a steward the entire time AFSCME represented our office. She was always a resource for younger attorneys who realized the idea of union representation was a natural role for an Assistant Public Defender but had no idea how to get there. Martha\u2019s actions in helping build the union into a vibrant institution is not unique, but nevertheless unusual when it comes to Attorneys. Martha was one of the few who made the connection between unionization and social justice for the indigent and less fortunate. For Martha, defending the Constitution and defending her union contract were one in the same. And it wasn\u2019t just about making more money. The connection to good working conditions and an office that promoted career service and the best criminal defense attorneys anywhere is not a simple concept to conjure. But Martha understood this quite well.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It may seem a bit hyperbolic to compare Martha to some of our early heroines in labor history. Mother Jones who fought to end child labor and the dehumanization and\u00a0 degradation of coal miners; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who helped bring justice to textile workers; Delores Huerta who struggled for farm worker\u2019s rights or even Jane Adams who marched in nearly every worker\u2019s cause. But we would be remiss if we didn\u2019t think of Martha Fitzsimmons when we think of some of the women today who have advanced the cause of workers in general and women and children in particular.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I am sure that Martha will be remembered by many of her clients for how she helped them. It is my hope that any PD who has benefited from Martha\u2019s lifetime of service to the office and her union will realize that their standard of living today, their ability to provide a extraordinary service to \u201cthe people\u201d is in a large part, due to a women named Martha Fitzsimmons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Wake and Funeral Mass Arrangements for Martha Fitzsimmons \u00a0Wake:\u00a0\u00a0Thursday Evening\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0February 25th, 2010 McDonough Hall\u00a0\u00a0(Gleason Building)\u00a0\u00a02nd\u00a0floor 1101 Columbian Avenue Oak Park, Illinois\u00a0\u00a060302 Visiting hours:\u00a06 pm through 9 pm At 7:30 pm, there will be a special service with prayer, sharing memories, and music. Everyone who wishes to share a \u201cMartha story\u201d is asked to write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}