Page 6 The Skanner MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE EDITION September 21, 2016
Special Business Edition
MBE 2016
Black Transit Worker Campaigns to Increase Diversity in Union Leadership
Demographic shifts in union membership have not translated to demographic shifts in union top brass
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Contributor
K
eith Bullock, a bus oper-
ator for the Washington
Metropolitan Area Tran-
sit Authority (WMATA),
wants to transform the lead-
ership of his local union and
push for greater diversity in
top labor positions nation-
wide.
According to a 2013 report by
the Labor Center at the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley,
Black workers are more likely
to join unions than non-Blacks.
“These diferences were
magniied when limiting the
analysis to the ten most pop-
“
pared to non-Blacks,” the re-
port said.
In the northeast, union den-
sity for Black workers is 23.8
percent compared to 16.5 per-
cent for non-Black workers.
Bullock, born and raised in
Southeast, Washington, D.C.,
is campaigning to become
the next Recording Secretary
in the Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 689, which rep-
resents operators, clerical,
paratransit and maintenance
workers in the Washington
D.C. area transit system. The
position is one of three elect-
ed positions in the powerful
union.
Black workers have been, for the
working class as a whole, the canary
in the mine…What befalls the Black
worker inevitably confronts the
bulk of the working class
ulous metropolitan areas in
the United States. Among U. S.
workers, Blacks were 19 per-
cent more likely to belong to
unions than non-Blacks; how-
ever, among workers in the
largest metropolitan areas,
Blacks were 42 percent more
likely to belong to unions com-
The election is scheduled for
Sept. 21.
“Labor unions have taken
a kind of twist in the route to
bringing together individ-
uals,” said Bullock, who has
worked for more than 11 years
in transit and served as union
shop steward and executive
board member for Local 689.
“Today, the union leadership is
more a ‘me’ and ‘my’ attitude.”
While Bullock campaigns
for a leadership position in his
Washington, D.C.-based union,
the election has far-reaching
implications for other trade
groups.
In 2015, the Black Labor
Collaborative, a group of in-
luential African American
leaders from major labor or-
ganization, released a white
paper that said, “Black work-
ers have been, for the working
class as a whole, the canary
in the mine…What befalls the
Black worker inevitably con-
fronts the bulk of the working
class.”
The paper also suggested
that the, “the Achilles’ heel of
organized labor has been its
failure to respond to attacks
on Black workers and its in-
ability ‘to recognize that the
Black working class is, indeed,
a component of the larger
working class and not some
marginal category.’”
Bullock said that the powers-
that-be are more concerned
with maintaining power than
they are about the workers.
During elections, Bullock said
that group leaders will run
a ive-person slate for oice,
tying all of the positions to-
Keith Bullock is campaigning to become the next Recording Secretary in the
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents operators, clerical,
paratransit and maintenance workers in the Washington D.C. area transit system.
gether to form, “a clique where
there’s no accountability.”
The married father of ive
wants to push for greater
transparency in leadership,
increase beneits and improve
the quality of life of his fellow
transit workers in the region.
Bullock’s mission is to ward
of attacks on pensions, ensure
adequate and afordable health
care and fair wages for work-
ers and to provide solutions
for inclusive management and
employee relations.
His appreciation of history
can also be an advantage, as
Bullock noted the distinct ties
that labor unions have with
the Civil Rights Movement.
“I know that during the
height of the Civil Rights
Movement in the 1960s there
was strong solidarity and sup-
port from the leadership of
the AFL-CIO with Dr. Martin
Luther King and the Southern
Leadership Conference,” Bull-
ock said, noting that King’s
assassination in Memphis oc-
curred during a struggle over
the labor rights of primarily
African-American sanitation
workers.
Bullock said that the unions
adopted some of the organiz-
ing traits that became prom-
inent during the Civil Rights
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