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Contact: Steven Pitts
Phone: (510) 643-6815
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Beyond the Mountaintop: King’s Prescription for Poverty
Black Economists Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Assassination
April 2008, by Steven C. Pitts and William Spriggs
» Report 
» Press Release
» Press Coverage
Beyond the Mountaintop: King’s Prescription for Poverty, by Steven Pitts of UC Berkeley and William Spriggs of Howard University, is a policy brief that analyzes African Americans’ economic progress over the last 40 years and uses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of economic justice as the basis for policy recommendations to dramatically reduce poverty.
2007 Conference on Job Quality and Black Workers
 On December 8, 2007, over 40 community activists, policy advocates, and academics from around the country gathered to discuss the latest Labor Center research on job quality and Black workers. In addition to a presentation from Steven Pitts, attendees heard about strategies to improve job quality from Faith Culbreath, president of SEIU SOULA 2006 (Los Angeles); Rael Silva, organizer with Young Workers United (San Francisco); Susan Washington, assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (Washington, DC); and Amisha Patel, coordinator, Grassroots Collaborative (Chicago). Participants left the convening energized and committed to exploring ways to integrate the need for quality jobs with their daily work.
» Conference Powerpoint Presentation by Steven Pitts
Job Quality and Black Workers: An Examination of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York
August 2007, by Steven C. Pitts
» Report
» Executive Summary
» Press Release
» Press Coverage
This study that finds that more than half of U.S. Black workers earn low wages and lack advancement options. The study also explores how new global economic realities are having an impact on future employment prospects for Black workers.
 Black Workers in the Bay Area: Employment Trends and Job Quality 1970-2000
November 2006, by Steven C. Pitts
» Report
» Executive Summary
This report presents a detailed view of the Black workforce, with a focus on the incidence of low-wage work. It finds a two-dimensional crisis of work in the Black community: that of unemployment, and that of low-wage jobs. The author argues that not enough attention is paid to the crisis of low-wage jobs or to the task of transforming the millions of low-wage jobs into jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. The report includes recommendations on policies that will increase standards in the areas of wages (minimum wage laws; living wage laws); benefits (protecting employer-based health care and pension plans); and the right to unionize.
Black Workers in the Bay Area: 1970-2000
September 2005, by Steven C. Pitts and Steve Wertheim
» Report
» Press Release
» Press Coverage
This data brief illustrates the worsening condition of the Bay Area Black working population, drawing special attention to the problem of low-wage employment. The study reveals that, from a numerical standpoint, low-wage employment is a greater concern than unemployment in the black population. The report also highlights the dramatic downturn in the fortunes of the black male and young black working populations, respectively.
Organize...to Improve the Quality of Jobs in the Black Community
May 2004, by Steven C. Pitts
» Report
This report documents the disproportionate number of Blacks holding low-wage, dead-end jobs, and assesses responses to this crisis from activist organizations nationwide. The author reviews the wide range of activities of Black-oriented non-profits, generally, and the geared towards work and employment issues, specifically. The author notes the lack of programs directly targeting the transformation of bad jobs, and discusses reasons for this state of affairs. The report weighs the effectiveness of race-based organizing, and discusses collective action strategies to combat the problem of bad jobs.
Research Project on Community-Based Organizing Among Black Workers: One way to address
the crisis facing Black workers is to deepen the quality of organizing in the Black community
around issues of work-life. Work-life issues reflect the varied experiences in the arena of
employment including, job access, skill development, labor market outcomes (such as wages,
hours, and tenure) and worker rights on the job. While recent years have seen a marked increase
in organizing among immigrant workers by both unions and community-based organizations around
work-life issues, it is not clear that there has been a similar upsurge among Black workers.
This one-year project seeks to document and analyze existing activism around issues of work
in the Black community and to provide research that supports and expands organizing in African
American communities around jobs, job quality, and job access.
On September 8, 2003 Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica Forum and a former education
director of the AFL-CIO, shared with Bay Area unionists his analysis of a crisis facing Black
America, as well as ideas on how to better organize Black workers.
» Read
a report of this event
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