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NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 2004Black challenge to IBEW leadershipNewark, N.J.--This March, Black telephone workers at Verizon in New Jersey will attempt to make history. For the first time ever, a Black telephone worker will attempt to get elected to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 827 Executive Board. In 2004, a Black worker running for union office hardly sounds groundbreaking. What makes this situation different? The vast majority of telecommunications workers across the country belong to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a primarily telephone industry union. But in New Jersey, the telephone craftsmen belong to the IBEW. While some clerical workers are in the union, it is dominated by "outside” installation and maintenance technicians, linemen, and the construction departments. White male workers in the conservative and craft-oriented IBEW have historically dominated these craft positions. BIRTH OF UNION BLACK CAUCUS IBEW Local 827 is a statewide local divided into six geographic regions. Each region or unit elects one member to the statewide executive board. The telephone garages in Unit 4 serving the Essex County area contain the largest concentration of Black workers in the state. Three years ago, Black telephone workers in that area formed an organization called the Black Telephone Workers for Justice (BTWFJ). One key objective of the BTWFJ was to get Black workers more involved in the life of the union. They persuaded Black workers to start going to union meetings and eventually got some Black workers elected to lower level shop steward positions. The participation of Black workers in the life of the union changed union dynamics in Unit 4 as they began to demand that the union leadership take up the struggle to win Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday as a paid holiday. They got a resolution passed making the IBEW Local 827 Executive Board give $1,500 to the "Charleston Five,” longshoremen fired and charged with rioting during a protest to defend their jobs. The Black workers’ participation was instrumental in getting Unit 4 to pass a resolution opposing the war in Iraq. The progressive positions coming out of Unit 4 due to the influence of the Black workers led to them calling Unit 4 the "conscience of the local.” Ron Washington, president of the BTWFJ, said, "Before we began organizing, most Black workers did not go to union meetings because they considered the union a ‘white’ thing.” He continued, "Not only have we raised issues and demands that are of particular interest to Black workers, but we have proven that we have been fighters in the interests of all workers.” INDIVISIBLE STRUGGLE Washington pointed to the fact that two years ago they led a walkout of Black and white workers that shut down two garages, after a Black worker was mistreated. They have also led protests when white workers were mistreated by management, which is in keeping with the mission statement of the BTWFJ, calling for Black workers to fight for unity with all workers, at home and abroad. The BTWFJ has organized Black telephone workers to be more active off the job as well. They have supported community struggles against police brutality and racial profiling, and formed a sister relationship with the Newark-based, "Peoples Organization for Progress.” They have been active in the fight for reparations and in support for the struggles of Black students at Seton Hall and Rutgers University. The BTWFJ is running not only Washington for executive board, but a slate of the other five local positions. The Black workers feel that militant, fight-back, socially active trade unionism is a program that the current leadership does not possess. Email the BTWFJ at Blacktel4justice@aol.com. |
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