Black Lives Matter Requires Labor’s Full Support

In MassCOSH’s four decades of operation, we have forged hundreds of coalitions that connect the needs of union and non-union workers to ensure that they can all earn a fair wage, be treated with dignity, and return home to their families alive and well. Our latest efforts have centered around empowering Black and Brown workers and linking the fight between economic and racial justice.

The Black Lives Matter Movement has launched these topics to the top of the national agenda and MassCOSH is doing its part, working with Massachusetts labor groups to tear down the power structures that have limited Black and Brown people from achieving true economic stability.

Al Vega, our Director of Policies and Programs is playing a leadership role for MassCOSH in these efforts as a member of the MA AFL-CIO’s Racial Justice Committee and the Greater Boston’s Labor Council’s (GBLC) complimentary efforts to address racism.

Vega is helping to lead tough conversations on the labor movement’s role in contributing to racism, understanding how labor actions/inactions have affected Black and Brown lives, and how the movement can overcome its past history and play a role in tearing down systems of oppression. We plan to be frank and transparent about white supremacy in labor and how our movement needs to remove those influences.

Just recently, the Mass. AFL-CIO released a mission statement for its committee and GBLC also just released a video affirming its commitment to support Black workers.