Arizona Labor Dispatch, Vol. 2, Issue 104
The 29th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention was historic for several reasons, one of which was the announcement of the AFL-CIO Sports Council. The Council aims to help professional athletes join together to form unions and strengthen their lives, livelihoods, and working conditions. Case in point: the recent unionization of thousands of professional Minor League baseball players currently being represented by the Major League Baseball Players Association.
One of the key figures in assisting President Shuler and Secretary-Treasurer Redmond in the formation of the Council was NFLPA Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith. Leading the group of professional sports leagues consisting of the NFLPA, the United Football Players Association-USW, the NWSL Players Association, the USLPA-CWA, and most recently, the Major League Baseball Players Association.
One of DeMaurice Smith’s predecessors as the Executive Director of the NFLPA was an actual NFL player and subsequent Hall of Famer as an offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders, Gene Upshaw. Gene Upshaw is a multi-year Pro Bowl player who has won two Super Bowls. As a player, Gene was active in the union, eventually becoming the player representative for his team. Gene was elected President of the NFLPA during the last season he played in 1980; he played his entire career with the Oakland Raiders.
In 1983, Gene Upshaw took over as the Executive Director of the NFLPA to become the first African American to head a major sports player’s union! It was quite an amazing accomplishment for the young boy who picked cotton with his family on a little farm in Robstown, TX, where he was born in 1945.
Known as ‘the Governor’ by his teammates because of his commanding presence on the field and in the locker room and for his natural leadership qualities. Gene’s Pro Bowl, Super Bowl, and Hall of Fame career led him, like Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell before, to break the color barrier in professional sports, this time as a Union Leader! It also paved the way for figures like DeMaurice Smith and his newly appointed predecessor of the NFLPA, Lloyd Howell, or Tony Clark, Executive Director of the MLBPA, as African Americans leading major sports league unions!
Though the struggle and the challenges continue, union history and Black History are inextricable. Whether it’s A. Phillip Randolph starting the Pullman Porters, the first Black Union, or Dr. Martin Luther King being assassinated in Memphis, TN, in 1968 while he was there in support of the Sanitation Workers of AFSCME, or United Steelworkers International Vice President Fred Redmond being the first African American elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO.
It's been far too long to still have ‘firsts’ in breaking the color barrier, especially for labor. But in this time of politics trumping education, we must never forget, and we must not fail to teach about what many of us don’t know.
Gene Upshaw passed away in 2008 from cancer. He left a legacy of overcoming, achievement, perseverance, excellence, and leadership for the Black community and all of us.
“Just Win, Baby!”
In solidarity,
Fred Yamashita
Secretary-Treasurer
Executive Director
Arizona AFL-CIO
UPCOMING EVENTS & ACTIONS
You know it, we know it and millions of other working people across our country know it: It’s better in a union. Check out this new video featuring union members talking about what the union difference means to them.
'I Am Story' Nomination for NAACP's Outstanding Podcast Image Award
The NAACP has nominated the “I Am Story” podcast, AFSCME’s series recounting the struggle of the 1968 Sanitation Strike in Memphis, Tennessee, for an Image Award in the Outstanding Podcast—Limited Series/Short Form category.
Help share the “I Am Story” with a new generation of workers by casting your vote no later than Feb. 24. You can vote for the podcast by following these steps:
Select the Outstanding Podcast—Limited Series/Short Form category.
Click the “Vote” button located underneath the “I Am Story” podcast—please note that this does not officially count your vote.
Click “Back to Categories,” then scroll to the bottom of the categories page and click the “Submit Your Votes” button.
Enter your email into the pop-up window and click the “Vote” button, and once it says, “Thanks for voting,” your vote has officially been counted.
