Today’s Struggle for Racial and Economic Justice

Fred Redmond, international vice president of United Steelworkers (USW), delivers the 36th McBride Lecture, a biennial event sponsored by the Higgins Labor Program and Center for Social Concerns. Redmond views the greater racial and economic injustices of our society through the lens of union organizing and explains that only by rising together can a just world be achieved. With this framework, we can see how meritocracy and the loss of solidarity perpetuate marginalization.

Redmond has been the USW international vice president, human affairs since 2006. He joined the USW when he went to work at Reynolds Metals Co. in McCook, IL, in 1973 and worked his way up through the ranks of his local from shop steward to grievance committee member to local president. A leader in the wide labor movement as well, he holds leadership positions in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and Working America, and he is chairman of the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.