Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry

by David Goldberg (Editor), Trevor Griffey

Black Power at Work chronicles the history of direct action campaigns to open up the construction industry to black workers in the 1960s and 1970s. The book's case studies of local movements in Brooklyn, Newark, the Bay Area, Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle show how struggles against racism in the construction industry shaped the emergence of Black Power politics outside the U.S. South. In the process, community control of the construction industry--especially government War on Poverty and post-rebellion urban reconstruction projects-- became central to community organizing for black economic self-determination and political autonomy.

The history of Black Power's community organizing tradition shines a light on more recent debates about job training and placement for unemployed, underemployed, and underrepresented workers. Politicians responded to Black Power protests at federal construction projects by creating modern affirmative action and minority set-aside programs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but these programs relied on voluntary compliance by contractors and unions, government enforcement was inadequate, and they were not connected to jobs programs. Forty years later, the struggle to have construction jobs serve as a pathway out of poverty for inner city residents remains an unfinished part of the struggle for racial justice and labor union reform in the United States.

Genres: History

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2010

Reviews

[Bastia Marlowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been swallowing book about unions and the labor movement since 2016, but this book has a lot of information, especially in a field with which I am not too familiar - construction. I have construction brothers and sisters out there but wow! there is so much to discover! A year or so ago I read a book about how corrupt the Postal Union was and this book somewhat reminded me of that. One of my Labor Professors is the co-author and I really think I'd need to re-read it before I even say "Hey, great book!" I'm thinking making a timeline, maybe invest in a packet of lined post-its, etc. My most exciting takeaway this reading was the direct connection to the cities in which the Black workers encountered the most racism were also the cities with severe education issues. I'd really like to go back and parallel the Black Panther movement with the information in this book.

[Jody Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last three chapters, written by Griffey himself, are especially incisive. The failure of construction unions to be part of the broader working class movement and to open their doors to black, immigrant, women, and lgbtq workers continues. We see the building trades leadership jumping to polish Trump's boots now as his administration wreaks havoc on their members, in the hope the he'll throw them a few crumbs. It's quite similar to what Griffey describes under Nixon- treat other workers as disposable and focus on winning a narrow political victory. It didn't work then- the Business Roundtable proceeded to destroy the union shop- and it won't work today for union construction workers. It may benefit some bureaucrats though- maybe one of them can get a position in Trump's cabinet like Peter Brennan with Nixon. Traitors and sellouts.

[Lawrence Grandpre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an excellent analysis of the work done by Black contractors of getting access to construction industry employment. Since this history bridges the gap between civil rights, black power, community control, and does not fit neatly into the story of the institutional left this story has been woefully under-told.