IFPTE Celebrates and Honors Black History Month

The IFPTE family is proud to recognize and honor Black History Month.  IFPTE not only cherishes the historic and continuing alliance between the Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, we also honor Black workers and families. 

Sadly, African-American workers, particularly women workers, lag far behind their white counterparts when it comes to compensation, pensions, and benefits.  Furthermore, in 2024 there is an effort in many places throughout the United States to flat-out eliminate any teachings or even mention of Black History. These efforts to ignore our history and perpetuate these disparities will not be tolerated by IFPTE or the Labor Movement.  Indeed, as a Union, IFPTE will continue to fight for equality and justice.

At the Illinois AFL-CIO Convention in October 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King said the following:

“The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.  Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all, new wage levels that meant no mere survival, but to tolerate life.  The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome.  When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”

IFPTE and our Locals honor Black History Month!

Connect with the AFL-CIO and view their Black History reading list. Reading is Fundamental!