Black Worker Centers: Building Workplace Power in the Communities
Even in anti-union terrains, the centers have found ways to change public and corporate policies.
As organized labor grapples with the consequences of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Unionâs landslide defeat at the Amazon mega-warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, one potential direction for the labor movement lies in the types of power- and base-building activities of Black worker centers.
That African American workers need to amass the power to better their conditions is beyond dispute. The American working class is in serious trouble, and Black workers most particularly. The median net wealth of Black families is just $24,100 (lower than any other racial group in America today), while that of white families stands at $188,200. Ongoing institutional and systemic racial discrimination against Black workers persists in housing, health care, education, and employment.