Page 5 - Work Force February 2023

Black History Month:
Black workers helped build labor movement
Throughout U.S. labor history, Black workers have played a
key role not only in forming unions, but helping secure improved pay, benefits and working conditions even amid ongoing discrimination.
As our union celebrates Black History Month, we look back on just a few of many examples of Black workers’ contributions to the labor movement, even as the fight for equality and racial justice continues.
In 1838, Black workers in Baltimore, Maryland formed the Caulkers Association, one of the first Black trade unions in the U.S. Many members worked as caulkers, carpenters and longshoremen. The group collectively bargained with shipyard owners, leading to much higher pay than non-union caulk workers.
Nearly 30 years
later, Issac Myers
founded The Colored
Caulkers Trade
Union Society, which
was formed to fight
discrimination against
Black employment
in the ship caulking
industry. The group
eventually bought stocks that led to a purchase of a shipyard and railway that employed hundreds of workers. They were also awarded several government contracts.
Myers, who would serve as a labor leader until he passed away in 1891, was among more than
200 Black workers who in 1869 formed the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU), a confederation of independent Black local and state unions and one of the first national Black labor organizations.
The CNLU sought to increase the number of Black workers, improve working conditions, develop a national public education system and eliminate workplace discrimination.
February 2023
Meyers served as the group’s president until 1872. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass succeeded Myers.
In the early 20th century, Black workers continued their fight for justice. The Industrial Workers of America (IWA) was one of the first established trade unions to organize Black workers.
In 1925, trade unionist and labor organizer A. Philip Randolph helped found the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first union of predominantly Black members to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor. At its height, the union had about 18,000 members in North America.
Women play key role
Black women also played a significant role in forming unions during
In this illustration, Black union members meet, circa 1869.
Myers
Jones
Among the
other Black women who later led groundbreaking efforts to improve working conditions, and pay for domestic workers include
Dorothy Lee Bolden
as key to achieving
full equality. In 1968,
he visited Memphis,
Tenn. to support AFSCME-represented
sanitation workers
who were fighting for fairness
on the job. The night before his assassination on April 4, 1968, King delivered his final, "I’ve been to
the Mountaintop" address to the workers.
More than 50 years later,
CSEA and other labor unions are continuing to fight to achieve King’s dream, focusing on inclusion in our workplaces and our union. With inclusion, our voices grow stronger, as does our union.
— Wendi Bowie
the 20th century.
Dora Lee Jones,
helped establish
the Domestic
Workers’ Union in
Harlem in 1934, which
is believed to be a steppingstone in ending the exploitation of Black domestic workers.
voter registration drives. They led these efforts during an era when Black people were being denied their right to vote.
Standing up for civil rights
The labor
movement has long
stood as an ally
to the civil rights
movement, often
working together.
Randolph also
played a key role in
advancing civil rights,
including working
with other leaders such as Bayard Rustin to protest discrimination in the defense industries and armed forces. Pressure from Rudolph, Rustin and other leaders spurred President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an Executive Order in 1941 that abolished discrimination in the defense industry. President Harry S. Truman issued an Executive Order abolishing discrimination in the armed forces in 1948.
In 1955, Randolph
became a vice
president of the
AFL-CIO, where he
continuously fought
to end discrimination,
including from within
the newly-formed
federation. Randolph
In 1965, Randolph
and Rustin founded the A. Philip
Randolph Institute (APRI) to continue the alliance between civil rights and the labor movement. APRI is today an AFL-CIO constituency group that fights for racial and economic justice.
Along with Rustin, Randolph
also worked closely with The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on efforts to end discrimination. Randolph and Rustin played key roles in organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" address.
King also worked hard to advance labor justice, viewing economic equality
Bolden
and Melnea A. Cass. Both Bolden and Cass led efforts for these workers to gain political clout in local governments in respectively Atlanta and Boston, through
Cass
Rustin
King
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