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Convergence

Steven Pitts

3 articles and 37 podcasts

Steven Pitts is a long-time labor strategist. For 19 years, Steven led the UC Berkeley Labor Center, where he focused on a wide range of issues facing Black workers. He is a co-founder of the National Black Worker Center. Prior to joining the Labor Center, he taught economics for 15 years at the Houston Community College, and worked in a machine shop where he was active in the United Steelworkers of America. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston in 1994.

Contributions from Steven Pitts

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Maurice BP-Weeks: Racial capitalism, ‘because I’m Black all the time’

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In this tenth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Maurice BP-Weeks, co-founder of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE). ACRE sits at the nexus of the struggles for racial and economic justice. As such, they provide campaign assistance to local organizations and engage in national campaigns against corporate elites.  Equally important, ACRE shapes the national narrative around role of the corporate elites in the exploitation of communities of color.  Last year, Maurice wrote a key article stating that Amazon was a key symbol of racial capitalism.
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Jesse Hagopian: #BlackLivesMatter at school

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In this ninth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Jesse Hagopian, an Ethnic Studies teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington.  The public schools in the United States have been near Ground Zero during this confluence of COVID, the recession, and the fight for racial justice and because of this, education has become a flashpoint for political struggle. Jesse has been active trying to ensure that any school re-opening takes places on a timeline and fulfills key conditions that best serves the interests of students and staff, not the needs of outside political actors with their agendas. Prior to the pandemic, Jesse worked with others from around the country developing a liberation pedagogy and working with his union (and others) to build a social justice unionism that has the power to transform education.
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Michelle Crentsil: Nurses bridge differences to tackle life-and-death issues

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In this eighth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Michelle Crentsil, political director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). The members of NYSNA have been through hell this past year dealing with the extreme conditions caused by COVID and federal government ineptitude. We talked about these struggles and the reality that the pandemic has forged greater solidarity among nurses and led them to advocate for structural changes in the health care system based on their experiences this past year.
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Erica Smiley: Can we imagine a democracy worth fighting for?

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In this seventh episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Erica Smiley, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice. Smiley has been with Jobs with Justice for over 15 years. Prior to joining the organization, she worked at a number of unions and community-based organizations. During the episode, we spoke about a variety of topics including the need to go beyond the red state/blue state view of today’s politics and gain a better appreciation of the nuances within all of the states. In addition, Smiley advocated analyzing organizing prospects through the lens of what has been a state’s (or region’s) history with democracy and collective bargaining infrastructure. She closed by talking about the importance of developing a vibrant vision for democracy in order to building social movements with broader political horizons.
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Bill Lucy: At the crossroads of labor, Black power & civil rights

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In this sixth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes William A. Lucy. Bill retired in 2010 after over 50 years in the leadership of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Union (AFSCME). Bill talked about his beginnings in the labor movement organizing government workers in Contra Costa County (CA). He later represented the national staff of AFSCME during the campaign of the Memphis sanitation workers and Bill discussed some of those lessons. As a co-founder of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Bill provided insights on the relationship between Black unionists, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the labor movement during the 60s and 70s. We closed by discussing what suggestions he would rely to young Black unionists today.
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April Sims: Building vibrant unions with space for all workers

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In the fifth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes April Sims, Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council.  April told us a bit about her background, in particular, how the experiences of her mother led April to understand the importance of unions to working people’s lives.  She also talked about the work of the State Labor Council in developing and rolling out an anti-racism training for unions and their members.  (April mentioned a document that resulted from the initial work: “Race to Labor: Can Organized Labor Be an Agent of Social and Economic Justice?” It can be downloaded at Race to Labor.
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Greg Kelley: Unions can lay a foundation for lasting progress

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In the fourth episode of Black Work Talk, host Steven Pitts welcomes Greg Kelley, President of SEIU Health Care Illinois.  Greg gave us a sense of how he got into labor organizing.  We moved to get a sense of how COVID has impacted union members and their resolve to use the power of their union to protect their quality of life on the job.  Greg relayed stories of how efforts to build racial solidarity within the union going back to the murder of Michael Brown in 2014 bore fruits this year as the union fought the impacts of COVID and fought for racial justice.  Greg concluded by sharing his vision for 2021 linking the work of the union with the mission of Black freedom.