Union Commitment to Racial Diversity
Document Type
Book Section
Publication Date
11-2019
ISBN
9781108610070
DOI
10.1017/9781108610070.040
Abstract
This chapter will address the need for more strategic actions by organized labor regarding matters of race given the increasing racial diversity in the make-up of unionized workplaces. There are challenges for unions when matters of racial justice pit union member versus union member. Nevertheless, this chapter asserts that union leadership must embrace the growing concerns of a racially diverse membership and the impact of recent social movements in highlighting societal concerns about race. Then union leadership can establish a new platform that approaches those concerns at the bargaining table by advocating creative contract terms that value workplace diversity, including dispute resolution tools within the grievance process that will promote worker solidarity on matters of both race and class. Finally, the chapter concludes by extolling the virtues of union-led efforts to seek racial justice in the workplace by joining with broader social movements as establishing key win-win consequences for workers of color and their unions.
First Page
381
Last Page
391
Num Pages
11
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Editor
Richard Bales & Charlotte Garden
Book Title
The Cambridge Handbook of U.S. Labor Law for the Twenty-First Century
Recommended Citation
Green, M. (2019). Union Commitment to Racial Diversity. In R. Bales & C. Garden (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of U.S. Labor Law for the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge Law Handbooks, pp. 381-391). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108610070.040