Pride At Work (P@W) is an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group (LGBTQ+) of labor union activists affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
Gay rights and the labor movement The openness, visibility and participation of LGBTQIA+ people in the American labor movement is closely linked to that of the American Gay Rights Movement. But gay activism flourished in a limited way in some sectors of the "house of labor." The National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS), which represented workers on luxury liners, included among its leaders the openly gay Stephen R. Blair. NUMCS was derided as "red, black and queer" for its leftist politics, racial integration and the large number of gay members.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 59. A sign in the union hall proclaimed, "Race-baiting, Red-baiting, and Queer-Baiting is Anti-Union."Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation, 2009, p. 15. Blair's life-partner, Frank McCormick, was a vice president of the California Congress of Industrial Organizations and an important leader in the 1934 West Coast longshore strike.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 60.NUMCS also had a number of openly gay African-American men serving in leadership positions. Harry Hay was an organizer for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in New York City. Attending the Southern California Labor School, he met many of the men who would later become some of the first members of the Mattachine Society,Starr, Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963, 2009, p. 470; Bullough, Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, 2002, p. 84. whose initial five members were all union activists.
Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,National Archives and Records Administration Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents From the National Archives, 2003, p. 232; Persons, The Expanding Boundaries of Black Politics, 2007, p. 51; O'Brien, George G. Higgins and the Quest for Worker Justice: The Evolution of Catholic Social Thought in America, 2004, p. 338; Harris, "A. Phillip Randolph, Black Workers, and the Labor Movement," in Labor Leaders in America, 1987, p. 276.Rustin's homosexuality became public knowledge in 1953, when he was arrested in Los Angeles, California, for gay behavior. . later became the first executive secretary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.Levine, Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement, 1999, p. 175-176. Another openly gay man, Tom Kahn wrote speeches for and served as assistant to AFL-CIO presidents George Meany and Lane Kirkland, as well as head of the AFL-CIO's International Affairs Department from 1986 until his death in 1992.Tom Kahn's life motivated several discussions:
Openly gay Bill Olwell became an international vice president of the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) in 1972, and was later elected to a similar position with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in 1986 after the RCIU merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters to form the UFCW.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 61, 68.
The first public endorsement of LGBTQIA+ rights by an American labor union, however, did not occur until 1970, after the Stonewall Rebellion. In that year, the executive council of the American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution which denounced discrimination against teachers solely because the individual was a homosexual.Fairchild and Hayward, Now That You Know: A Parents' Guide to Understanding Their Gay and Lesbian Children, 1998, p. 98. A second step forward for LGBT labor activists came with the Coors strike and boycott. As part of its anti-union efforts, the company administered lie-detector tests to prospective employees asking about their union views.Heath and Palenchar, Strategic Issues Management: Organizations and Public Policy Challenges, 2009, p. 371. Among the questions also asked was whether the job applicant was a homosexual.Friedman, Consumer Boycotts: Effecting Change Through the Marketplace and the Media, 1999, p. 126; Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism, 1991, p. 66; Kates, Twenty Million New Customers!: Understanding Gay Men's Consumer Behavior, 1998, p. 157; Badgett, Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men, 2001, p. 124. In 1974, the Teamsters were attempting to organize workers at Coors. Two straight Teamster organizers approached San Francisco gay community leaders Howard Wallace, a teamster union activist, and Harvey Milk, then an emerging political activist, about supporting the boycott.Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation, 2009, p. 246. Wallace and Milk agreed, if the Teamsters would agree to promote the hiring of openly gay truck drivers. The Teamsters consented.Miller, Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History From 1869 to the Present, 2006, p. 369. The Coors boycott took off in San Francisco, and spread nationally. In California, the market share of Coors dropped from 40 percent to 14 percent. Facing this boycott, Coors stopped asking its applicants about their sexuality.
The gay rights and labor movements joined forced again in 1978. Proposition Six, known as the Briggs amendment, would have banned gays from teaching in California public schools. A coalition of gay and union activists was formed and defeated the amendment.Rimmerman, From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States, 2002, p. 130; Harbeck, Gay and Lesbian Educators: Personal Freedoms, Public Constraints, 1997, p. 243.
In 1979, the quadrennial convention of the AFL-CIO unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the enactment of federal legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 69.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a number of LGBTQIA+ union members had formed caucuses within their respective unions. Organizations with large numbers of members which became politically active, even electorally important, included those within the Service Employees International Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Communications Workers of America and UFCW.Frank, "Lesbian and Gay Caucuses in the U.S. Labor Movement," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 87-100.
Origins In June 1994, LGBT union activists gathered in New York City as part of the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Wallace and others associated with the Gay and Lesbian Labor Activists Network (GALLAN), an organization of LGBT labor union activists in San Francisco, pushed for the formation of national organization out of frustration with the labor movement's silence during the debate over the Defense of Marriage Act.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 74-78. Taking a cue from a 1990 booklet titled Pride at Work: Organizing for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Unions, the group decided to adopt the title as its name.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 73.
In 1997, PAW affiliated as a constituency group of the AFL-CIO. Affiliation did not come easily. Several members of the AFL-CIO's executive council argued that the group was too small to affiliate. Affiliation was also opposed on the basis that members of the group were not historically discriminated against in collective bargaining, and that the members should work through their local and international unions. This claim led to accusations by some members of the executive council and the LGBT union community that those opposing affiliation were homophobic. But AFL-CIO president John Sweeney pushed hard for the affiliation. When a final vote was taken, opponents of affiliation abstained rather than vote no.
PAW's relationship to the AFL-CIO proved rocky at first. Unlike other AFL-CIO constituent organizations, Pride at Work was not given a budget to help fund its operations until 1999.Bain, "A Short History of Lesbian and Gay Labor Activism in the United States," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 81. In 2006, funding was still minimal. From the outset, however, PAW was given full access to AFL-CIO state and local labor councils and international member unions, enhancing its research and mobilization efforts substantially.Noyes, "Coming Out for Union Democracy: AUD at Pride at Work," Union Democracy Review, August/September 2001.Hunt, "What Can Be Done? Sexual Diversity and Labor Unions in Perspective," in Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Nations, 1999, p. 2.
Structure
Pride at Work is a non-profit organization. It has five executive officers: two Co-Presidents, one Vice President, one Treasurer, and a Recording-Secretary. The Co-Presidents chair the National Executive Board and the Executive Committee of the organization. Each officer has a four year term, with elections held at the organization's quadrennial membership convention.
PAW's governing body is the National Executive Board (NEB). The NEB is composed of the five executive officers; chapter representatives elected from the chapters; a member appointed by the President of the AFL-CIO; members appointed by International Union Presidents; and three Diversity Representatives elected at the membership convention. P@W's National Executive Board meets at least once a year.
Chapter representation on the NEB is proportionate to membership. A chapter which represents 5 percent or more of the organization's membership is entitled to one representative on the NEB. Each June 30 in a non-convention year, smaller chapters may seek recognition from the organization to determine whether they meet the 5 percent cut-off mark. Following each quadrennial membership convention, small chapters not meeting the 5 percent threshold collectively elect one Small Chapters Representative.
Diversity Representatives are important to PAW's work as an organization. Categories covered under diversity include but are not limited to race, industrial sector, rank and file status, gender identity, union representation, gender, age and geographic area (especially those targeted for new chapter organizing).
An Executive Committee governs the organization between meetings of the National Executive Board.
Per the bylaws, an Executive Director is appointed by the Executive Committee and directed by the Co-Presidents. there must be at least one executive director.
Per the national bylaws, the membership conventions are the highest decision-making body in the organization. Members may be at-large or members of local chapters. As of 2023, PAW has 31 established chapters. PAW holds a quadrennial convention, usually in August or September. The most recent convention was held in Minneapolis in 2022.
Goals and program
Pride at Work exists to build tolerance and support for LGBTQIA+ members in the workplace and in labor unions.