Union members are close to reviving the dormant Cleveland chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. They want the reorganized chapter to become a voice for Black workers and a force within Greater Cleveland’s civic and political life.
The chapter would be a vehicle to organize around Black issues, said Pamela Mason, who is helping restart the local chapter of the international organization. “Our issues and problems are different. A lot of times they go unwelcome, unmatched or they just get pushed to the side,” she said. “If we show a strong front with our voice and our position, we will be effective.”
The retired Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority employee, who is active in the International Amalgamated Transit Union, is working with Pierrette “Petee” Talley to bring the chapter back to life. Talley, who is CBTU’s regional representative for Ohio, retired a few years ago as secretary-treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO.
We have always flexed our political muscle. Most of our chapters are very active with local, state and national politics. Black trade unionists understand the national implications of what can happen to Black people across this country if the wrong administration and the wrong national policies are advanced.”
Pierrette “Petee” Talley, who is helping to revive the Cleveland chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, speaking about CBTU
Mason and Talley recently held a meeting for people interested in reorganizing the Cleveland chapter and came close to getting the 25 people needed to restart it, Mason said. Membership is open to any member of a “bonafide” union, which includes those that bargain contracts and represent members in grievances with employers. Both women are hoping to get younger union members involved, especially those under 40.
The meeting was scheduled for about an hour but lasted about 2 ½ hours. Attendees discussed the need to organize against policies they believed had been detrimental to Black union members and the Black community. They include the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers and the president’s executive order aimed at abolishing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Black workers comprise a higher share of the federal workforce when compared to their percentage of the population. For example, in Ohio, nearly 17% of federal workers are Black, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.,released in April. Black residents comprise 13.4% of the state’s population, according to the 2020 Census. Black women have been disproportionately affected by the federal layoffs, reporting by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica found.
Attendees also discussed increasing voter registration and turnout in upcoming elections. These include local and state elections and next year’s midterm Congressional elections.
What is the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists?
It was presidential politics that spurred Black labor leaders to start CBTU in 1972, Talley said. She said they were “astounded and disappointed” that the AFL-CIO did not endorse a presidential candidate that year. CBTU’s founders were determined “not to let Black folks suffer” while the AFL-CIO sought to remain above the political fray, Talley said.
“These Black leaders knew the damage that a Richard Nixon administration could wreak on a lot of the country as a whole, workers in general and Black folks in particular,” said Talley, who began her union career in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
CBTU’s founders include well-known labor leaders: William Lucy, international secretary-treasurer of AFSCME; Nelson “Jack” Edwards, vice president of the United Auto Workers; William Simons, president of the Washington Teachers Union Local 6; Charles A. Hayes, vice president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, and Cleveland Robinson, president of the Distributive Workers of America, District 65.
“We have always flexed our political muscle,” Talley said. “Most of our chapters are very active with local, state and national politics. Black trade unionists understand the national implications of what can happen to Black people across this country if the wrong administration and the wrong national policies are advanced.”
How will CBTU help Black workers and Greater Cleveland’s Black community?
The Cleveland chapter, which has been dormant for at least a decade, was among the first in the country, Mason and Talley said. (It is not clear why the chapter became inactive.) The organization now has more than 55 chapters nationally. Ohio chapters include those in Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.
CBTU’s objectives include improving economic development and employment opportunities for Black workers, increasing Black and minority participation within the labor movement, increasing union involvement in voter registration, voter education and voter turnout projects and organizing nonunionized workers, according to the organization’s website.
Mason and Talley see the Cleveland chapter being involved in all of the above.
Voter engagement is important to Talley and Mason and, they said, to many who attended the recent meeting. Talley, who lives in Toledo, started the nonprofit Ohio Unity Coalition, whose focus includes Black voter participation. Mason is Cleveland coordinator for the Ohio Unity Coalition and is active in voter participation efforts with the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP.
Once up and running,Talley said she wants the local CBTU chapter to have a strong voice in the affairs of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor. Brian Pearson, who heads Northeast Ohio’s largest labor organization, welcomes this.
When he took over the 85,000-member organization in January, one of Pearson’s priorities included reorganizing dormant constituency organizations that advocate for different demographic groups among the membership. The local AFL-CIO has several, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Union Veterans Council and the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which focuses on racial equality and economic justice.
“I always say we want to bake them [their concerns] into the pie and bring those voices to the table,” Pearson said.
Mason and Talley said that increasing Black union membership is important because union members earn more than their nonunion counterparts. Nonunion members only earned 85% of what union members earned in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The typical weekly earnings of full-time union members was $1,337. For nonunion workers, it was $1,138.
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute showed that belonging to a union helps in closing the racial wealth gap. Among nonunion families, the typical white family has more than $7 in wealth for every $1 the typical Black family has. Among union families, the gap is $3.70 to $1.
Discussing topics such as these – and how to address them in Greater Cleveland – is why last month’s meeting ran long.
“I’ve had three of them [atendees] reach out to me and say, ‘When’s the next meeting?’” Mason said.
The next meeting will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Aug. 23 at the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 880, 9199 Market Place, Suite #2, Broadview Heights.
For information about the reorganization of CBTU’s Cleveland chapter, contact Petee Talley at (419) 490-3009 or Pamela Mason at (216) 268-9658.