CBTU Celebrates 35 Years with Call to Organize, Build Political Strength

by James Parks, May 29, 2006

With the percentage of African American workers who are union members dropping substantially, the union movement must organize more workers of color, force working family issues onto the political agenda and promote diversity in union leadership. That’s the message from the nearly 1,600 union members meeting in Orlando this weekend at the annual convention of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

The percentage of African Americans who are either members of or represented by unions fell from 31.7 percent of all black workers in 1983 to 16.6 percent in 2004, according to a report by the Center for Economic Policy and Research. In 2004, African Americans still were more likely to be in unions (16.6 percent) than whites (13.9) and Latinos (11.4 percent). Nevertheless, the decline in union membership between 1983 and 2004 was sharper among black workers (down 15.1 percentage points) than it was for whites (down 8.3 percentage points) and Latinos (down 12.8 percentage points).

The report shows much of the decline is due to the loss of manufacturing jobs. Between 1979 and 2004, the share of all African American workers who worked in manufacturing declined from 23.9 percent to 10.6 percent.

The decline in manufacturing jobs is just one of the legacies of the Bush administration, CBTU President William Lucy said in his May 26 keynote address:

The failed policies of this administration are visible in every segment of our lives—jobs, education, health care, economic development, pensions and retirement security, Social Security, prescription drugs, trade, immigration. Unemployment is up and wages have been stagnant since 2001, forcing desperate working parents to get a second, and sometimes a third job, or max out their credit cards just to make ends meet.

Lucy, who also is secretary-treasurer of AFSCME, reserved his strongest criticism of President Bush for the government’s failed response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina:

No place was Bush’s incompetence, racism and hypocrisy more visible than with the federal government’s response to the hurricane disaster in Mississippi and New Orleans. The whole world, and especially the people from the Gulf region, will never forget the incredible incompetence, indifference and cronyism shown by this administration in the aftermath of one of the greatest natural disasters of our time. This government, this superpower, this military goliath with the greatest might in the world, could not get its citizens off bridges and rooftops, could not move people from a convention center to a place of safety, could not get water to thousands of thirsty men, women and children.

Under the theme, “CBTU at 35: Continuing the Fight for a New Economic Order,” the delegates are celebrating the groups 35th anniversary while discussing strategies to rebuild the nation’s economy, strengthen black representation in unions and lift workplace issues into the political agenda in 2006 and 2008. Other issues on the agenda include organizing low-wage workers, opposing the export of America’s jobs, promoting national health insurance, increasing the minimum wage, reforming immigration, building a black political agenda, opposing privatization of Social Security and fostering diversity in unions.

Convention speakers include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.), syndicated columnist Julianne Malveaux and Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland.

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