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CBTU: A SLEEPING GIANT NO MORE
THE COALITION OF BLACK TRADE UNIONISTS
By Dwight Kirk

Organized labor has been the institution that has played perhaps the largest role in improving the economic condition of African Americans in the past half century. Indeed, the foundation of the black middle class since the 1950’s has been built largely by black trade unionists. One of every 5 African American workers belongs to a union. Since 1972, CBTU has been the voice of 2.5 million black trade unionists. CBTU has played a key role in making the labor movement more relevant to the needs and priorities of minority communities.

“To play our role fully as Negroes, we will have to strive for enhanced representation and influence in the labor movement. Our young people need to think of union careers as earnestly as they do of business careers and professions.”
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King would proud to know that today’s black labor leaders have built distinguished careers serving working people. No, CBTU doesn't get the headlines, but make no mistake about it -- CBTU is making a huge difference and writing its own history.

• Leadership -- When CBTU was founded in 1972, the AFL-CIO leadership was bitterly opposed to the bold, independent political positions taken by CBTU, and minority workers held few leadership positions in unions. Today, African Americans, women, Asian Pacific Islanders and Hispanic leaders hold 13 of the 51 seats on the powerful AFL-CIO Executive Council. With this growing concentration of minority leadership, the racial and gender profile of organized labor will change profoundly during the first decade of the 21st century.

• Action -- CBTU has played a key role in educating and mobilizing African American voters. Working with Operation Big Vote and local church and community activists, CBTU has gotten funding for get-out-the-vote operations throughout the nation since its founding.

• Solidarity - Long before black freedom fighters finally uprooted white minority rule throughout Southern Africa, CBTU was the first American labor organization in 1974 to pass strong resolutions calling for an economic boycott and a change in U.S. policy toward Southern Africa. CBTU President Bill Lucy spearheaded an unprecedented fund-raising effort that netted $250,000 from American unions to finance Nelson Mandela's historic tour in the United States in 1990.

CBTU has existed longer than any black independent labor organization in U.S. history. But more impressive than CBTU’s longevity is its growth and stature. CBTU has expanded significantly, growing from 27 chapters in 1991 to 60 chapters today, including a chapter in Toronto, Canada.
Speakers at past CBTU national conventions have included former Vice President Al Gore; Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young; AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., and numerous trade union leaders and freedom fighters from other nations.

CBTU epitomizes the vital continuity of black workers asserting their voice in the workplace and in their communities, dating back to 1869 when 214 delegates assembled in Washington, D.C. to form the Colored National Labor Union, the first national labor organization established to unite African American workers and exert their collective power.

That’s why this year’s convention is so important, because it renews a proud tradition of collective action by African American workers -- the descendents of slaves who dared to be human and brave while planting democracy’s seed in this rich, wretched soil.