Yvonne Wheeler was elected the new president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (LA Fed) on Nov. 21. The historic unanimous vote by her peers makes Wheeler the first Black woman to hold the title and makes her one of the most influential people in Los Angeles politics.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4863, The United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019, legislation introduced by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, to reauthorize and improve the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank which supports American workers, businesses and the economy.
Randolph’s grounding in his own culture enabled him to successfully collaborate with others, including Whites, other labor unions, government officials and politicians. Racial and cultural grounding are prerequisites for effectively working with others and must become part of conversations and strategies to reverse Blacks’ current self-denigrating mindsets and ineffective leadership. That said, the following are highlights in A. Philip Randolph’s quest to improve the quality of life for Blacks and other oppressed people.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has enjoyed a long history of supporting organized labor, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement when many unions and civil rights-focused organizations worked together to secure legislation that benefitted African Americans.
Over 1,000 community leaders, labor leaders, union members and elected officials gathered in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Organized labor is practically a shell of what it once was and regaining that strength is now a matter of urgent necessity. But Black unionists’ concerns are not a significant part of organized labors’ deliberations on regaining influence or real reform. For Black unionists, labor reform, in the public or private sectors, is mostly rhetoric not reality.