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Retirement Party
Yesterday, I attended a reception for Kathleen Duda, the president of the Patent Office Professional Association, and a Patent Office employee for thirty-five years. Several people spoke about her career and achievements, and I managed to shake the lady’s hand, and say, “Thank you for all you’ve done for us.”
There was a large screen, displaying a number of images, many of them with pictures of famous people and pro-labor or pro-union quotes attributed to them. There was also a blow-up of the beginning of a Washington Post article from late 1993, describing how a patent examiner named Kathleen Duda took a breast pump to work, so that she could express milk for her seven month old daughter Colleen. One of the speakers narrated how Kathy was at first denied the maternity leave she had been told that she could get, and that was what got her involved with POPA, and resulted in her claim to maternity leave finally being upheld when she returned to work. (I don’t know whether she got any back pay.)
When Ms. Duda herself spoke, she said that her daughter, now a teacher in the South Bronx, was getting married in July, so she had only six weeks to prepare for the wedding.
And now to get to work.
There was a large screen, displaying a number of images, many of them with pictures of famous people and pro-labor or pro-union quotes attributed to them. There was also a blow-up of the beginning of a Washington Post article from late 1993, describing how a patent examiner named Kathleen Duda took a breast pump to work, so that she could express milk for her seven month old daughter Colleen. One of the speakers narrated how Kathy was at first denied the maternity leave she had been told that she could get, and that was what got her involved with POPA, and resulted in her claim to maternity leave finally being upheld when she returned to work. (I don’t know whether she got any back pay.)
When Ms. Duda herself spoke, she said that her daughter, now a teacher in the South Bronx, was getting married in July, so she had only six weeks to prepare for the wedding.
And now to get to work.