Unions Help Build Communities

Syracuse CBTU members address gang violence, unemployment

UAW Local 624 member Harold Jones describes his hometown, Syracuse, N.Y., as “one of the nation’s murder capitals.”

As a union member, that concerns him as much as free trade and pensions. And that’s why he helped start a Coalition of Black Trade Unionists chapter there.

“We attended last year’s CBTU national convention for the first time as a recognized chapter,” said Jones, now president of CBTU-Syracuse. “Since then we have been trying to figure out how to address problems like gang violence and unemployment.”

Jones and other Local 624 members who work at DaimlerChrysler’s New Process Gear plant in Syracuse have made CBTU a highly effective vehicle for becoming involved in their community.

“We sponsored a town hall meeting to bring the community together to talk about our problems. Then we got the city to open up the schools last summer,” Jones said. Besides sports and other activities, the open schools offered young people training in filling out resumes and preparing for job interviews.

CBTU members also shared the wisdom gained from their years of work and union activity. As a mentor, Jones advises teens, “Your lives are already difficult enough, why make them even more difficult by making bad decisions?”