Back in the day, when I was an active Union representative in a virtually all White industry, I certainly ran into more than my share of racism among Union members. And I certainly attended more than a few executive Union meetings where the head table was peopled exclusively by old White men. But the reason I became and remain a dedicated and convinced union loyalist is because of Union leaders and members like the then President of the United Mine Workers Union, Richard Trumpka, as well as men like my mentor, Chuck Dale, past International President of The Newspaper Guild.
The Union movement has long ago learned that divisions of race, gender, class, education, etc., were all too frequently exploited to keep the have not's, having not! And the most effective response to organized capital was organized labor.
While the union movement provided no panacea for racism or sexism, it certainly was in the forefront of battling both and a bunch of other "isms" too.
This video is especially relevant after the recent AP/Yahoo poll on the impact of race on The Race. In it Trumpka lays out the argument on why all working people should support Obama.
As Jonathan Tasini notes in his blog... Race, Labor and The Election
Look, in the middle of this economic crisis and financial meltdown, you have to wonder: why is this election close? The answer is: race. All those negative answers to questions about whether Barack Obama has enough experience, or can be commander-in-chief or...whatever you want to choose, boil down to certain people won't vote for a black person for president. Simple as that.
What does that mean within labor? Fact is, a certain percentage of the people who fall into the above category are union members--and union members from battleground states.
Trumpka speaks at Dem Convention