From Central Illinois cornfields to southwestern copper mines and the Warrior Met Coal strike in Alabama, Dr. Ericka Wills’ life journey weaves together current labor struggles and women’s roles in those efforts.
Growing up in Colfax, Illinois, Wills’ father is a United Steelworkers Local 787 coordinator at Bridgestone/Firestone and her grandfather was a member of Carpenters Local 63. She completed a Ph.D. in English at Illinois State University, where she studied and encouraged workers’ writings.
Currently, she is an assistant professor with the University of Wisconsin’s School for Workers, where she leads classes, research, and activism for rank-and-file workers.
Working with the United Steelworkers, Wills helped build cross-border relations between United States and Mexican copper miners. These workers realized the copper companies were playing one against the other. In this male dominated industry, Wills focused her attention on women—whether as workers, through structured women’s auxiliaries or as home and community stalwarts. Women played critical roles in sustaining the struggles.
Since April 2021, United Mine Workers of America members at Alabama’s Warrior Met Coal are striking. Wills makes frequent trips south to support these workers and to share their story nationally, again focusing on women’s critical role in this long-standing effort.
Wills will speak at Illinois State University on Monday, February 27, at 2 p.m. in the Multicultural Center. Her talk, “Women’s Crucial Roles in Sustaining Mining Strikes and Communities,” is sponsored by the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality program.
On Tuesday, February 28, 6:30 p.m., at the McLean County Museum of History, 200 N. Main Street, downtown Bloomington, she will present “From the Cornfields to the Coal and Copper Mines.” This is sponsored by the Museum of History, Bloomington-Normal Trades and Labor Assembly and Not In Our Town-Bloomington-Normal. These events are free and open to the public.
