Shelley Herochik

Shelley L. Herochik CHESAPEAKE - Shelley L. Herochik a writer, professor and union activist, died Jan. 14, 2009. She was 58. After earning a double bachelor's degree in science from Douglass College, a master's in counseling and a doctorate in education from Rutgers University, Ms. Herochik used her sharp mind and sense of justice fighting for workers in the garment industry and later health care workers. Her union career started in her home state of New Jersey as an educator for Local 65. Her achievements lead her to New York, where she worked first for Local 122 of the ILGW bringing thousands of union members to demonstrate in Washington, D.C., and helping to elect the first black mayor of New York, David Dinkins. ILGW leaders saw a star and moved her to their national office as assistant education director. There she continued to develop her skills as a lobbyist and organizer bringing workers to Washington, D.C., who for the first time, spoke directly to their congressional representatives. A 1991 move to Washington State allowed Ms. Herochik an opportunity to work as a staff person for Congresswomen Jolene Unsoeld of the 3rd CD. When Unsoeld lost the election for the 104th Congress, Ms. Herochik took a union position as the Western Region representative for SEIU covering the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. She was selected to be member of SEIU's health care reform team and worked with the Task Force on National Health Care Reform lead by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. After four years as the Western Region representative, Ms. Herochik decided to work directly with union members and became the assistant director of SEIU Local 49 in Portland, Ore. During her tenure, Local 49 and its 300 Kaiser Permanente workers struck the health care provider and won a contract giving workers better pay, benefits and work rules. Her key role was to keep the press informed of the union's positions and show that their demands were just. Twenty years is a long time in the labor movement and it was now time to use her writing skills and redefine herself. Ms. Herochik became a regular writer featured in the Portland Business Journal, Portland In Focus and BUILDERnews Magazine. She covered health care, high tech business development and personnel profiles. Ms. Herochik's first passion was teaching. Her first experience was teaching labor history to undergraduates at Rutgers University. In 2005, her family moved back to the East Coast and settled in Chesapeake. Once again Ms. Herochik found an opportunity to teach, this time at Cambridge College. For three years she taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses in writing, research, philosophy and business. She was the undergraduate coordinator and to her students she was their patient saint guiding them through their degree, their captain no matter how rough the waters were. Ms. Herochik was a lifelong diabetic, a disease that through complications took her life. She is survived by her husband of 32 years, John Herochik; her mother, Lillian Glotzer; sisters-in-law, Barbara Herochiik and Judith Sherman; niece Nancy Sherman-Dragone; nephew, Brian Sherman; and Daisy the dog. After a memorial service in Chesapeake, she will be interned in New Jersey. The funeral will be held Saturday at 5 p.m. in Twiford's Funeral Home, 929 S. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake, VA 23322. The family will receive friends at the funeral home Saturday from 4 until 5 p.m. Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.twifordfh.com.