Public Employee Press

1010 WINS spot
Lillian Roberts: African American “Pioneer and Icon”

For radio station WINS 1010 AM, February, Black History Month, is “a time to commemorate African Americans who have changed the world.”

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts was among the handful of “pioneers and icons” whose achievements the station highlighted this year.

Broadcast all month long, their radio spot said her “lifelong record in the labor movement shows that Roberts always has and always will put the members and services to the members first.”

The tribute cited her “rich history in the labor movement” and said she has “earned the reputation of a tenacious leader and brilliant organizer. After she organized 22,000 hospital workers against tough opposition in a do-or-die election where every vote counted, Lillian Roberts is still about union building.”

The program said, “her humble beginnings as a struggling Nurse’s Aide and union organizer in Chicago during the 1960s fuel her devotion to the success of DC 37,” and pointed out that “she always fought for dignity and opportunities at the workplace for union members.”

WINS called Roberts “bold enough to think outside the box” and praised her for working with city officials and banks “to launch the municipal Employees Housing Program, the nation’s most comprehensive affordable housing initiative developed by a labor union,” as well as “the nation’s most comprehensive union education program.”