Dec. 18, 2023

Lee Saunders

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When working people stand together, raise their voice and show their power, they win.

That’s the lesson of 2023, a year in which workers boldly asserted their rights and refused to accept less than their fair share of the value they create.

Through October, nearly 500,000 workers had taken the courageous step of going on strike this year, three times the number that did during the first 10 months of 2022.  And almost 900,000 union workers have won pay hikes of at least 10% over the last year.

AFSCME affiliates across the country have been a part of this wave of strike activity. From workers in Yamhill County, Oregon, to employees in the Morgan County, Ohio, school district, AFSCME members withheld their labor until their employer afforded them the respect they deserve.

This is happening across the economy – from health care to hospitality. Writers, actors and other workers in the entertainment industry hung together for months until they finally got a better deal from their employers. Sometimes, just the threat of a strike forces management to soften and cede to workers’ demands. That’s what happened in the standoff between the city of San Jose, California and the Municipal Employees’ Federation–AFSCME Local 101 this summer. Similarly, the Teamsters were prepared to walk off the job at UPS but ultimately didn’t have to, using the leverage of a 97% strike authorization vote to land a historic contract.

Perhaps the year’s highest-profile worker action came from the United Auto Workers. In an unprecedented gambit, the union went on strike against all of the Big Three automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – at the same time. UAW now has contracts with all three companies that include life-changing raises of up to 160%, as well as greater retirement security and union protections for those working on electric vehicles.

When workers are able to organize, bargain collectively and go on strike when necessary, the benefits are felt especially in communities of color. Unionization has been an economic lifeline for generations of Black people, in the public as well as the private sector. My father was a bus driver in the city of Cleveland, and while we sure weren’t rich when I was growing up, his union wages and benefits meant that we could have a decent life.  

Unions are a force for racial equity. While there are still major pay and wealth gaps between Black and white workers, they would be much larger if not for unions. And in 2022, median earnings for Black union members were more than 20% higher than for Black workers who don’t belong to a union.

No wonder African Americans are more likely to be union members and more likely to support unions than the population at large. So, as we look at strategies for growing the labor movement, organizing Black workers must be a top priority.

Workers of all races are feeling empowered and emboldened, claiming their seat at the table and inspired to take collective action. And strong public support is the wind at our back. Recent polling demonstrates that unions enjoy sky-high approval ratings, particularly among young people. Growing numbers of people want unions to be stronger and believe they are good for the economy.

As we close out 2023 and look ahead to a new year, the challenge for those of us in the labor movement is to build on this momentum. We must continue standing up to the boss and organizing new workers. We must continue bargaining good contracts and electing pro-worker allies. We must continue, every day, to talk about and demonstrate the power of the union difference.

Lee Saunders is president, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Dec. 11, 2023

Michael Grant (right), former president of the Nashville Branch of the NAACP and the National Bankers Association, congratulations Tennessee Rep. Harold Love on his election as the next president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Rep. Harold M. Love, Jr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) -  Tennessee Representative Harold M. Love, Jr., the next president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), served as host to the NBCSL’s recent conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Nashville. Representative of Tennessee’s 58^th legislative district, Love is now president-elect of the NBCSL. He will be sworn in as president next December 2025 in Washington, D.C.  

“One thing that I have thought about when it comes to leading NBCSL once I’m sworn in is to continue some of the work I’m doing now as president-elect. And one of the main focal points that I have been charged with by the current president is to establish a series of regional quarterly meetings.” 

Love says the NBCSL will begin holding in-person meetings throughout the year instead of one annual meeting, a strategy envisioned by current president, Alabama Rep. Laura Hall, and assigned to Rep. Love. 

“The benefit is that we can address issues a lot faster than to wait for the annual conference at the end of the year. Most legislators are in session part time and the issues that we have to address happens in many states and affects constituencies that we represent from voting rights to educational attainment to affordable housing and health issues,” he said. “And so, to have regional meetings on a quarterly basis will allow us to respond faster collectively and that’s the strength of NBCSL. We are a collection of caucuses from across the country…We work in silos, but it does help when we have an organization that can galvanize us and make us aware of issues that are moving from state to state. So much happens from January through November that we now can no longer wait to convene.” 

Representative Love has been groomed for national leadership since his youth. His father, the legendary Harold Love, Sr., served in the Tennessee state house for nearly 30 years. His mother, an educator, taught math for 10 years and acted as director of the federal government’s local Upward Bound program for 47 years at Tennessee State University. She passed away one year after retirement. 

Representative Love lavishes praise on both of his parents who taught him how to serve others. All of their efforts resulted in his finally being elected after three unsuccessful attempts to hold public office. According to Representative Love, who earned a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University in Theological Studies and a doctorate from Tennessee State University in public policy and who is also Senior Pastor at Lee Chapel AME Church, received some sage advice from his mentor, Rev. Sonnye Dixon: “Do the work for the community outside of elected office. Then you will be able to continue this work after you are elected”. 

From that, Rep. Love took that there are many paths to public service and to elective office.  

“I know some people who worked for individuals and for campaigns and then ran for elective office the first time and won. That was not my case. Even though I worked in my father’s campaign, even though I was fairly active in my community, I did not win until my fourth time running,” he recalls. “It was in that space that Rev. Dixon said to me, ‘I know you want to do well. I know you want to help your community. Put that to work outside the office. And then if you get in the office then you’ve done well. But even if you don’t get elected, you still engaged in helping to shape policy.’” 

There are many ways to serve, Love says. “We get caught up in the moment-in-time snapshot of election day…But we must also look for opportunities to serve on local and state level boards and commissions. We miss that. Local and state level boards. Or we can shadow someone in a legacy organization like the NAACP and the National Urban League and engage in that work.” 

The 2010 flood that damaged a section of Black Nashville, gave Dr. Love the opportunity to put Reverend Dixon’s advice to work. By taking the initiative and helping to organize the recovery funded by FEMA, a grateful community encouraged Representative Love to seek office again. This time, in 2012, he was resoundingly elected to represent the 58^th district of the Tennessee General Assembly. 

The 2010 flood was a deep learning experience for Rep. Love. 

“We often times do not adequately look into the long-lasting damage that is done to African-American communities post a national disaster. You think about the uprooting of a family, you think about the one of several entities that can appreciate in value – that’s the home – and what that looks like for that thing to now be gone. What it looks like for a person to have to relocate their entire family to another part of town and acclimate themselves to a new community, new amenities to all that is new. What does that disruption look like from the standpoint of the ripple effect because it doesn’t just affect them. We’re talking about a whole neighborhood. It affects their families and affects their friends.” 

Three major initiatives to date are accomplishments of Representative Love. They are as follows: 

1. Legislation to require TennCare to track and report on the most current treatment modalities for Sickle Cell Anemia. This legislation allowed constituents to hold TennCare accountable for keeping the public apprised of the latest developments in Sickle Cell research. Eleven states have subsequently passed similar legislation. 
2. Representative Love introduced legislation to amend the property tax freeze program for citizens 65 years of age and older who met the income requirements. He got the income ceiling lifted from $31,600 to $60,000 annual income. This legislation has allowed countless seniors to maintain their status as homeowners. Regardless of the increase in house values, the freeze would cap the property tax rate through the duration of homeownership. 
3. Finally, through a joint committee, headed by Representative Love, the historical under-funding of Tennessee State University, a Land Grant college, has been publicized. This gross inequity, dating from 1957-2020, has resulted in a finding that the State of Tennessee owes the school some half a billion dollars for capacity grant matching funds withheld. 

Asked what his vision for the NBCSL will be when he assumes office, Representative Love, with a comprehensive and methodical mind, stated that he wants to get his fellow legislators to take notice of the trend to empower state legislators by political conservatives and be prepared for what is coming at minority communities across the country, such as voter disenfranchisement and intimidation. He wants voters across the country to realize that voting is their obligation in a democracy. Also, that they should stay engaged in the political process from election day to the implementation of policies designed to ensure inclusion in government created opportunities. 

Rep. Love believes America’s leading issue is “Without a shadow of a doubt, voting rights.” 

He says he believes voting rights “impact everything else that we’ve been discussing. When you talk about voting rights it’s not just the surface-level election day process. The whole concept of who governs is linked into access to voting. If I don’t have easy, consistent access to vote, then I don’t get to engage in the process of deciding who governs. If I don’t get to decide who governs, then the person who’s dealing with legislation, that person may not have my interests at heart and I didn’t get to engage in a process to choose them or to not choose them…So, that is where it starts and ends as far as I’m concerns. Because without the ability to decide who governs, everything else is almost unattainable.” 

Michael A. Grant, J.D. is a former president of the Nashville Branch of the NAACP and the National Bankers Association in Washington, D.C.

President Joseph Biden

Maya Wiley, president, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Damon Hewitt, LCCR president

Former President Barack Obama

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Joe Biden is receiving wide applause among Black leadership for his executive order that attempts to assure that artificial intelligence (AI) remains within boundaries that respect civil rights and adhere to principles of democracy. But the question remains whether the executive order goes far enough to protect Black people - particular from abusive law enforcement.

“We believe in the potential for AI to be a powerful tool to help advance our vision of opportunity and prosperity for Black and Brown people. But we cannot let the tools of the future reinforce the mistakes of the past. Guardrails must be implemented now to ensure that this emerging technology centers equity at every step of development and implementation,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR), in a statement issued following Biden’s signing of the executive order. “This executive order is a critical step to help guard against algorithmic bias and discrimination.  It can be the beginning of a pathway to a future where AI empowers instead of oppresses.”

Hewitt says the executive order prepares the federal government “to prevent and address bias and discrimination in new technologies; but more action is needed to fully address harmful AI used by law enforcement.”

Tech experts have pointed out that abusive AI tactics have been racially biased, especially against Black people.

An article titled, “Racial Discrimination in Face Recognition Technology,” written by Harvard University biotech consultant, Alex Najibi, points out that face recognition technology, a form of AI often used by police departments and in airport screening, as well as employment and housing decisions, has been known to involve “significant racial bias, particularly against Black Americans.”

Najibi adds, “Even if accurate, face recognition empowers a law enforcement system with a long history of racist and anti-activist surveillance and can widen pre-existing inequalities.”

He writes that “despite widespread adoption, face recognition was recently banned for use by police and local agencies in several cities, including Boston and San Francisco” because face recognition “is the least accurate” of all recognition technologies such as fingerprinting.

While applauding the Administration on its initial steps to direct agencies to determine how AI is used in criminal justice, the LCCR says Biden’s executive order does not go far enough to actually address “harmful uses of AI by law enforcement agencies, such as the discriminatory use of facial recognition technologies.”

President Barack Obama, who also released a statement, pointed out that he asked his staff seven years ago to study “how artificial intelligence could play a growing role in the future of the United States.”

He pointed out additional problems that could occur, including national security threats.

“We don’t want anyone with an internet connection to be able to create a new strain of smallpox, access nuclear codes, or attack our critical infrastructure. And we have to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the hands of people who want to use it to turbocharge things like cybercrime and fraud,” Obama states.

He credited organizations such as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Upturn to the Alignment Research Center for “tackling these questions, and making sure more people feel like their concerns are being heard and addressed.”

The Leadership Conference, led by Maya Wiley, president, wrote a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on August 4, urging the Administration to focus Biden’s executive order on “protecting the American public from the current and potential harms of this technology— including threats to people’s rights, civil liberties, opportunities, jobs, economic well-being, and access to critical resources and services.” That letter was co-signed by LCCR, the NAACP, and the Center for American Progress among others.

The Executive Order directs the following requirements for organizations using AI:

• Require that developers of the most powerful AI systems share their safety test results and other critical information with the U.S. government. 
• Develop standards, tools, and tests to help ensure that AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy. 
• Protect against the risks of using AI to engineer dangerous biological materials by developing strong new standards for biological synthesis screening.
• Protect Americans from AI-enabled fraud and deception by establishing standards and best practices for detecting AI-generated content and authenticating official content.
• Establish an advanced cybersecurity program to develop AI tools to find and fix vulnerabilities in critical software.
• Order the development of a National Security Memorandum that directs further actions on AI and security.

The focus of the executive order is primarily to assure a fair and safe future while using AI, Biden says. But the LCCR insists the order needs more work and vows to continue working with the Administration to that end.

Hewitt concluded, “To make that future a reality, civil rights-focused protections must apply to every aspect of our lives touched by AI technology, including the harmful use of AI by law enforcement. We look forward to working with the Biden Administration on how we can address the full scope of this challenge and fully leverage the opportunity before us.” 

Oct. 29, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After three weeks of chaos, the Republicans got their man. In a party-line vote, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was finally elected speaker of the House, with Johnson receiving the votes of all 220 Republicans who cast a ballot while all 209 Democrats present voted for Hakeem Jeffries.

During his first speech as the 56^th speaker of the House, Johnson vowed to “rebuild and restore” the trust of the American people, which he acknowledged had been damaged by the turmoil of recent weeks. “We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear: The People’s House is back in business.”

As the American people listen to Johnson and all factions making up the House Republican caucus, it is obvious that the internal enemies to America’s freedom and democracy are a greater threat than those from around the world. As the House members report back to duty, it is not simply a House divided between Democrats and Republicans, but Republicans versus Republicans.

The negotiations and compromises by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resulted in a bipartisan temporary funding bill, which ultimately passed with more Democratic than Republican votes. One small act of leadership and bipartisanship triggered a motion to remove McCarthy. Hard-right Republicans turned on McCarthy just as they had turned on Paul Ryan and John Boehner. Former Speaker Boehner was previously threatened with a motion to vacate but escaped the removal process.

Johnson was the party’s fourth nominee to replace the ousted McCarthy. The previous nominees, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Rep. Jim Jordan, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, failed to unite a dysfunctional Republican caucus. The Republicans went as far as to blame the Democrats for failing to throw McCarthy a lifeline to save his job. While the predictions of a Republican red wave never materialized in the 2022 midterm election, the GOP still flipped the House, resulting in a small majority. Despite becoming the majority party in control, Republicans continue to show they remain the “party of no.” Seeing how the extreme factions of the party have taken control, few agents of unity remain within the GOP.

Therefore, is it realistic to believe that the new House speaker will have the ability to “restore and rebuild” trust after the American people witnessed how a bitterly divided GOP caucus used bullying tactics and death threats against their members over speaker votes? If there is no respect for their fellow GOP members when they disagree with each other, how can any responsible person lead this group while working in a bipartisan fashion with the Democrats when the circumstance of the nation calls for it?

With either their support or opposition to the advancement of critical legislation, the individual who holds the House speaker’s position has tremendous power that can impact the lives of every American. Therefore, any American who stands for democracy and against authoritarianism cannot trust Johnson, who, like Jordan, supported Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections. While some will passionately vote for the protection of the Second Amendment, the same degree of passion needs to be given to the Fourteenth Amendment.

A key element of the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people, and provides all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. The amendment authorized the government to punish states that abridged citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress. It banned those who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States from holding any civil, military, or elected office without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate.

Donald Trump and his allies consistently promoted the idea of massive voter fraud and irregularities in big cities and counties with large populations of people of color. It is the votes of minority voters that Trump, Jordan, and Johnson sought to invalidate in cities such as Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. Therefore, we cannot overlook the Fourteenth Amendment concerning the new speaker. Johnson had argued Biden’s win was bogus, and he appeared to pressure 125 House Republicans to join him in filing a brief to the Supreme Court supporting a Texas lawsuit to overturn Biden’s win in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He told them Donald Trump was watching.

 To end this chaos, the Democrats must flip the House back to the Democrats and make Hakeem Jeffries the House speaker.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com