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Labor unions fight against some of the biggest hardships U.S. workers face, such as wage theft and dangerous working conditions.
Despite a troubling history with racist exclusion, today Black workers are currently the MOST represented racial group in U.S. labor unions. And as union membership grows, they’re winning powerful concessions – from often hostile corporations.
Recently, Amazon, Starbucks, and Apple workers are organizing to get union membership for their workforces. Some of these moves are historical firsts for corporations that do NOT want to grant workers the rights they deserve.
Black workers have actually been at the forefront of these worker activism triumphs for quite some time.
For generations, white workers excluded Black workers from joining labor unions. They were able to force Black workers into very specific industries and leave the “desirable” jobs to their own people.
The American League of Colored Laborers, most likely the first Black union to form in the United States, was led by abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Later, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, led by A. Philip Randolph, was crucial in fighting for Black workers’ rights and contributed to President Roosevelt’s historic labor rights legislation in 1938.
All workers deserve a living wage and to be treated with respect. The growth in Black labor union organizing is an inspiring effort to move our country in a more just direction!