American Rights at Work - 2008: The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

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2008: The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

American Rights at Work honors the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights for leading a dynamic coalition that advances workers’ rights as fundamental to civil rights and human rights.

Founded in 1950 as the nation’s premier civil rights organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) has a long tradition of working side by side with its friends in the labor community. In fact, one of its founders, A. Philip Randolph, was also the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first union led by African Americans.

Consisting of nearly 200 national organizations representing people of color, women, children, the elderly, gays and lesbians, and others, LCCR’s mission is to promote the enactment and enforcement of effective civil rights legislation and policy. The organization has played an active role in many facets of our nation’s social justice movement, including workers’ rights.

Today, the coalition’s efforts on behalf of working families are significant. After learning about FedEx Ground’s unfair labor practices, LCCR President and CEO Wade Henderson took the initiative to speak out publicly and shed light on how the company was violating both civil and workers’ rights. As a result, LCCR and American Rights at Work teamed up for a 2007 report highlighting FedEx Ground’s pattern of anti-union conduct and efforts to subvert labor and discrimination law.

LCCR’s priorities involve a variety of issues affecting America’s workers, including advocating for a fair and just minimum wage; guaranteed sick leave; vigorous enforcement of the Family and Medical Leave Act; pay equity; input into the Social Security debate; passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and bankruptcy reform. Notably, LCCR stood firmly in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions and improve their economic standing, when it was first introduced in Congress in early 2007. Speaking at Hill briefings, rallies and press conferences, LCCR’s work helped secure bipartisan passage of the bill in the House of Representatives.

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American Rights at Work is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively with employers.

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