Labor Center
Labor Center Staff
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Labor Policy Specialist
Steven Pitts came to the Labor Center in August of 2001 from Houston, Texas. Steven received his Ph.D. in economics with an emphasis on urban economics from the University of Houston in 1994. His M.A. is also from the University of Houston and he holds an B.A. from Harvard University. For the 15 years prior to his arrival at the Labor Center, Steven taught economics at the Houston Community College and, for five years, he was an adjunct lecturer in the African American Studies Program at the University of Houston. At the Labor Center, Steven focuses on issues of job quality and Black workers. In this arena, he has published reports on employment issues in the Black community, initiated a Black union leadership school, and shaped projects designed to build solidarity between Black and Latino immigrant workers. Currently, a major area work involves providing technical assistance to effort developing Black worker centers around the country.
Areas of Expertise
• Black Workers
• Alternative Strategies for Worker Organizing
• Union Leadership Development
Current Projects
Monthly Black Worker Report
A series of monthly reports that highlight the employment outlook in the black community as national jobless numbers hover around 10 percent and African Americans fare far worse.
C. L. Dellums African American Union Leadership School
An eight-session leadership development program specifically designed to develop the leadership skills of Bay Area trade unionists – both elected union officers and local member leaders – who are deeply committed to strengthening the relationship between the labor movement and the Black community.
National Black Worker Center Project
An 18-month project funded by the Open Society Institute’s Campaign for Black Male Achievement to provide technical assistance to groups attempting to form Black worker centers in 6 cities. This project continues the work assisting the development of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center.
Recent Publications
Annual Report: Black Employment and Unemployment in 2011 
January 2012, by Steven Pitts
Black Workers and the Public Sector: Racial effects of government layoffs
April 2011, by Steven Pitts
The End of the Recession? How Blacks Might Fare in the Jobless Recovery, with Sylvia Allegretto, October 2010
The State of Black Workers before the Great Recession, with Sylvia Allegretto, July 2010
EFCA Would Help Blacks Find Economic Recovery, Roll Call, April 21, 2009.
Beyond the Mountaintop: King’s Prescription for Poverty with William Spriggs, April 2008.
“Bad Jobs: The Overlooked Crisis in the Black Community,” New Labor Forum, Winter, 2007.
Job Quality and Black Workers: An Examination of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, August 2007.
The Fight for Quality Jobs: Our Battle Against Neoliberalism, Race, Poverty & the Environment, Vol XIV, #1, Spring 2007.
Organize...to
Improve the Quality of Jobs in the Black Community: A report on
jobs and activism in the African American community, May
2003.
“Community-based Organizing of Black Workers,” a paper
presented at the United Association for Labor Education National
Conference, April 2003.
“African American Intragroup Inequality and Corporate Globalization,”
with Jessica Gordon Nembhard and Patrick L. Mason, in Cecilia A. Conrad, John Whitehead, Patrick Mason, and James Stewart, eds., African Americans in the U.S. Economy, New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005.
Curriculum Vitae
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Phone: (510) 643-6815
Email:
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