Abstract

Excerpted From: Angela Thompson, The People United: Unions as Racial and Gender Justice Organizations, 45 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 105 (2024) (60 Footnotes) (Full Document)

I want to start by thanking the Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law for this incredible honor. I am deeply appreciative of the invitation to join the ranks of previous Feller lecturers. I also want to acknowledge the incredible contribution that David Feller made to the practice of labor law. He inspired a generation of labor lawyers. I hope you have taken some inspiration away from the remarks of David Feller lecturers in the past and from my words as well.

When asked what I wanted to talk about, I said I wanted to give a lecture about the future of labor. But when I sat down to write, I realized that what I consider to be the future of labor is, to some extent, also its past. To me, the future of labor is about labor as a civil rights movement. A gender rights movement. An environmental movement. It's not a different vision of labor as it can or will be at some future date and time. It's about viewing what labor has always been through a different or evolving lens, in my case a race and gender justice lens. I view labor this way because of my own story of why I became a labor lawyer--under circumstances that were both less than and yet especially ideal for such an outcome.

My childhood and my experiences as a young adult solidified my path before I even knew that's what had happened. As a Black woman from a small rural town in southern Illinois who grew up poor living in trailer parks and housing projects, I was not supposed to be a lawyer. I never wanted to be a lawyer. I never knew any lawyers. I was never told I should be a lawyer. I was raised by a single mother who cared about religious principles, civil rights, and labor unions. She was and is a religious woman who relies on her faith to carry her through hard times. She is a strong believer in race and gender equality, which she put into practice during her young adulthood living in Chicago during the 1960s surrounded by Black Panthers and police violence. She believes that collective action can lead to just outcomes. She respects Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his vision of nonviolence, but she also respects Malcolm X and his militancy. I was named after Angela Davis, the prominent communist activist, academic, and author with ties to the Black Panthers. That is the fodder for the development of my worldview. I believed that anything was possible. I understood that certain people were treated unfairly for no good reason. And I understood that by working with others we could change our world.

After years of financial struggle, my mom had the opportunity to get a union job and she took it. She became a member of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). It was a turning point in my life because we were finally able to make ends meet. Instead of a broken-down car with no heat, we had reliable transportation. Instead of hand-me-downs, I had my own clothes that fit. I know how unions help workers build better lives because I lived it.

But it was about more than higher wages and benefits. It was about staving off race discrimination in the workplace. You see, part of our economic instability came from the racism of an employer who was loath to keep my mom on the payroll once they learned about her Black daughter. In a small, impoverished area, losing a job has serious consequences. In our case it meant my mom would not have stable employment for many years to come.

At my mom's union job, even a racist boss did not have the power to terminate her with impunity. She was protected by her contract and her union. Make no mistake, racism was still an issue. But rather than being fired, her supervisors for the most part had to adjust. She was not just protected by the contract, she was part of a union family who made sure she was treated fairly at work.

I grew up and left home to go to college. I moved to the east coast and ultimately became a member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) working in a call center in New Jersey. Now I had a union story of my own. I had job security, better pay, great benefits, and protection from termination at will. I was able to attend graduate school thanks to an education benefit negotiated by my union. I became a union steward and helped process grievances for my coworkers. I learned how to read the contract. I learned the ins and outs of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and I learned how to navigate issues of race and gender discrimination that came up between members. It was liberating to help others by enforcing the collective-bargaining agreement (CBA). Ours was very long, over 300 pages. Every detail was included, down to every pay increase for each position.

But the most interesting thing I learned was that colleagues who fought with one another, who even used racist and sexist language towards one another, were still able to unite when it came time to strike. Somehow, we were always able to put our differences aside. And, in some instances, the racism or sexism even seemed to subside over time. In my call center, there was even an interracial marriage between the kids of two of my fellow union members that seemed unlikely given their prior but softening views on race. Even after I left for law school, I never stopped thinking about that. Why and how did that happen?

My origin story is one of civil rights and labor rights functioning together out of necessity. I held onto that idea during my education and into my working life as a lawyer.

[. . .]

Coming from a union household and being a union member early in my career made me realize the protection and value of unions. In addition to ensuring my coworkers and I received fair compensation, adequate benefits, and the ability to address workplace challenges, a union job afforded us the opportunity to have dignity, respect, and a voice on the job. However, as a Black woman from a low-income household, I constantly faced challenges that extended to the workplace and beyond. I strongly believe in building a more inclusive and progressive labor movement that not only promotes better wages and working conditions but also empowers workers to protect and advance their rights as human beings and full citizens. This begins with the understanding that our fight for labor rights and economic advancement is intrinsically tied to our fight for civil rights and social justice.

Forming a union is one of the most effective means for workers to ensure equity and combat various forms of systemic oppression in the workplace and beyond. Through unity and solidarity, union members can build power to negotiate strong collective bargaining agreements that can significantly improve their lives and serve as a pathway to rectify societal inequities. Unions are not immune to racism, sexism and other forms of systems of oppression that plague the rest of society, which is why building solidarity requires us to look within and take intentional steps to be inclusive of all workers.

Every time workers come together and build power to form a union and win a contract, they are not only improving their wages and working conditions but also raising the standard for all workers. The power of the labor movement comes from representing our union members on the job, organizing new people into our ranks, and building solidarity with other movements for social and economic justice through politics and movement building. This work doesn't stop when workers clock out for the day.

If you look behind the curtains of our current societal and political discourse, you will find the forces constantly launching attacks on our civil rights and democracy are the same anti-union and anti-worker forces. As Dr. King said during a speech to the 1961 AFL-CIO Convention, “The labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-[Black] epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.” Our capacity to fight back is tied to our ability to effectively communicate our shared values and help workers and all communities see behind the curtain. As law students and future legal professionals, you can play a critical role in defending the rights of workers in the workplace and beyond against those who seek to exploit working families for profit.

Right now, support for unions is near its all-time high. Workers are stepping up to address the inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic. Workers are taking collective action to form unions and fighting back against employers who interfere with their right to organize. They are mobilizing to negotiate contracts that are more inclusive. They are advocating for progressive policies and changes in their unions, their workplaces, their industries and their communities. Most of all, they are collectively saying NO to corporate greed, corruption and exploitation. My hope is for all of you here to go out there and have their backs. You can be their lawyer--their advocates in the courtroom, at the negotiating table, and in the streets.

Angela Thompson is an accomplished legal professional and former General Counsel for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), one of the largest and most diverse labor unions. Thompson first became a CWA member while working at Bell Atlantic, later Verizon, and served as a union steward and picket line captain.