Union Mourns Julia McMillon, 85, First Female Recording Secretary

OCTOBER 2—Julia McMillon, who rose from the ranks to break the glass ceiling at Local 100’s top echelon of leadership, passed away Tuesday, September 30, at her home in Co-Op City.

Starting out as a Cleaner in 1982 at the age of 42, she became a Shop Steward in the Stations Department, at a time when women were under-represented and their issues were often sidelined.

McMillon grew up on Dean Street in Brooklyn before her family moved to the Lower East Side and later ended up working nearby, at the 2nd Avenue station on the F line.

According to her niece, longtime Local 100 staffer Siaida Bryant, Julia was the glue that held the family together. “She was the matriarch,” Bryant said. “If someone fell short and needed help with the children, she was that aunt that picked up the pieces.”

McMillon brought that same diligence and passion to the job of Shop Steward. “I remember she used to get phone calls at all hours of the night,” Bryant recalled. “She would get up, wearing her long night gown and slippers. She would put on her trench coat and she would go down to the stations. The members respected her, and they voted her in.”

In 1993, she was appointed by then-President Damaso Seda to fill the term of the previous recording Secretary, Bob Fulton, who had retired. Running with Seda the following year, she won election as Recording Secretary, the first time a woman -- or a Cleaner -- had taken that role. She ran again and won in 1997 on Willie James’s slate.

Once in office she paid special attention to the needs of women on the job and in staff positions, founding the union's Women's Committee. Retirees’ Association staffer Carolyn Surian, herself the grand-daughter of Local 100’s third President, Daniel Gilmartin, said McMillon “was very good to us, at the General Office. We all loved her.”

At the time, a large staff of female secretaries acted as liaisons between the membership and union officers, coordinating meetings, representation, and union business.

McMillon ran again with Willie James in 2000, but her slate lost to Roger Toussaint’s New Directions. She went back to her tools and retired in 2004 at the age of 64.

Besides being a women’s rights advocate, McMillon was involved in the struggle for civil rights. In 1999, she was one of the signatories of a call for members to rally against a demonstration by the KKK that took place in Manhattan on October 23 – where counter-demonstrators vastly outnumbered the white supremacists who marched.

“She taught me to be a hard worker, to be diligent, to mean what you say and say what you mean,” Siaida Bryant said. “She always told me, take whatever they offer you in this union. Don’t turn down anything but your shirt collar.”

McMillion had five children, three of whom pre-deceased her. She also leaves eleven grandchildren to mourn. There will be a viewing at the Unity Funeral Chapels at 2352 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Manhattan on Saturday, October 11th at 3PM. A Service will be held at 4PM at the same location. She will be buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale on Tuesday, October 14th.