Nicole Fears has spent more than three decades in the labor movement, with a journey that began as a flight attendant and grew through years of representing and serving working people.

A longtime member of IAM Union, Nicole spent nearly 20 years as a shop steward, learning the labor movement from the ground up listening to members, enforcing the contract, filing grievances, and standing beside workers when they needed their union.

She later served in Local leadership, becoming the first Black president of her flight attendant Local in Cleveland.

Today, Nicole serves as the IAM Union Human Rights Director, where her work is centered on helping build a union where every member knows they matter, their voice matters, and there is a place for them to participate and lead.

She works with IAM Union Locals, Districts and Territories to strengthen Human Rights Committees, expand member participation, and help members connect human rights to how we treat one another, how we lead, and how we build a stronger union together.

Education is also central to her work. Nicole continues to develop and expand Human Rights education at the IAM Union’s William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center, creating opportunities for members to learn, have meaningful conversations, and take practical tools back home to strengthen their Locals and workplaces.

Her work also extends across the broader labor movement through relationships and service with labor constituency organizations. Nicole serves on the national board of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and, in 2026, was elected Chair of the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s Industrial Union Council.

Nicole’s leadership is grounded in a simple philosophy: human rights are about dignity, not identity. She believes every member should be able to see themselves in their union, know that their voice matters, and have a real opportunity to participate and lead. For Nicole, human rights are workers’ rights and building a stronger labor movement means making room for the humanity of every worker.

Ms. Carthy Boston began her interest in political and union activism while pursuing college studies. In 2005, she formally became a member of NEA and a Teamster in 2006, with Local 177 in New Jersey. 

After moving to the Metro DC area, she joined Teamsters Local 639 as a part-time preload employee at the UPS facility serving DC and parts of Maryland. 

Over the years, Ms. Boston has worked in both blue and white color industries, working in education circles and early mornings at the UPS warehouse facility. Boston has taught in public and/or private schools and served as an academic administrator within higher education. She advocates daily for the welfare of children and enjoys working with young people, the present and the future.

While working as an educator by day and a UPS employee early mornings, she joined Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), which inspired and mobilized her to use her teaching and administrative experience on the shop floor to train bargaining unit members to process grievances, run for elected office, and handle difficult supervisors. She has served in the capacity of a Trustee and a Steering Committee Member of TDU. 

In 2019, Ms. Boston was nominated and elected by the UPS workforce to serve as a shop steward. In 2022, she was appointed Business Agent with Local 639, where she was later elected to a three-year term. Ms. Boston currently serves as the only female Business Agent at Teamster Local 639. 

In 2022, she became the first and only Woman Business Agent representing UPS-Teamsters on discharge and contract language cases at the Atlantic Area Parcel Grievance Committee Arbitration Panel (AAPGC). The AAPGC consists of 7 states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

In 2023, Ms. Boston became the first Teamster Business Agent in the AAPGC Region to bring a harassment and retaliation case to the panel, which was deadlocked and advanced to the UPS-Teamster National Grievances Panel, where the grievant, Sister Keona Ricanek-Gaither, was awarded a monetary penalty. Sister Ricanek-Gaither sought representation to fight back against a manager after being harassed for having a tattoo that expressed surviving an assault.

In 2024, Ms. Boston again became the first Teamster Business Agent to be awarded penalty pay for harassment and retaliation at the AAPGC Regional Panel when two Shop Stewards, Paiva and Riechers, were harassed by a Manager. 

Boston was instrumental in helping the Teamsters Local 639 Women’s Caucus form and get started. The women’s caucus is serving the DMV community and actively involved in promoting women’s rights and gender issues.

As a Business Agent, Boston barns included UPS, MGM, Glenstone, and Verbal Beginnings. Verbal Beginnings is currently on strike and trying to earn their first contract. She is currently working with the bargaining unit to help organize the ABA community. 

Ms. Boston is highly engaged in serving the DMV community. She served as president of the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) committee in Mount Rainier, MD. She is a lifelong supporter and member of the Mount Rainier Community Garden and Prince George's Tennis Community, where she competes in USTA Tennis leagues in the DC Metro area. She is a member of Metro-DC DSA, and actively involved in helping to organize Amazon warehouse workers in the DMV. She is a member of First Baptist Church of Glenarden and participates in many community service outreach programs. She is currently engaged in attending community meetings to help organizers establish a Civic Association in Mount Rainier.

Boston has served as an election provisional ballot Judge in Prince George’s County and is committed to serving in the electoral process. In the community, she has campaigned and lobbied for various politicians in City and statewide elections. She is passionate about volunteerism, domestic violence prevention, homelessness, and social justice issues. 

Ms. Boston is a graduate of HBCU - University of the Virgin Islands, where she earned Bachelor’s degrees in Elementary Education, Speech Communication, and Theater. She holds a Master of Science degree in Student Personnel Administration and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. 

Her most important role in life is being the woman in her family who keeps everyone connected and together!

Tanya Hutchins joined the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 2012, while working for the Machinists Union headquarters staff as a Communications Representative and multimedia journalist. She has covered organizing and collective bargaining at Boeing, the founding of the IAM Maine Lobstering Union and countless rallies involving union members. She hosted the IAM’s webcast, Activate L!VE, for three years, interviewing many women members about mentoring programs in their locals. 

She is on CLUW National’s Media Committee and served as Treasurer of the Chesapeake Bay Chapter of CLUW. She is currently in the Metro DC chapter.

Tanya has more than 15-years experience as a news anchor/reporter in Columbus, Ohio, working at the NBC & ABC affiliates, and the now defunct Ohio News Network. She was a traffic reporter for NBC 4 Washington, ABC 2 in Baltimore and WJZ 13.

Tanya is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which she joined as a freelancer, hosting and acting in commercials, corporate training videos and films. She serves on the Next Gen committee.

She created Hutch House LLC for her video production work and loves recording Instagram Reels for small businesses.

Tanya is a proud graduate of Ithaca College in New York, about four hours north of where she grew up in White Plains.

Connect with Tanya:

Instagram: @TanyaHutchins & @HutchHouseLLC

Tik Tok: @Tanya.Hutchins