Public Employee Press

Lillian Roberts named to list of “25 Influential Black Women”

In its March issue, the prestigious Network Journal magazine named DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts to its widely admired “25 Influential Black Women in Business” list and adorned its front cover with her photograph.

For 11 years in a row, the list has recognized “the outstanding performance of 25 African-American women in the public, private, entrepreneurial and nonprofit sectors.”

The magazine, which targets blacks in the professions and small business, honored its 25 “women who are redefining excellence” March 12 at a luncheon and awards ceremony. Previous honorees included Susan Taylor, the former editor- in-chief of Essence magazine.

An article about Roberts cited her role in making DC 37 “the city’s largest, most powerful public employee union” and said she “has always been known for her organizational skills, her ability to connect with the rank-and-file and her commitment to fighting for their rights.”

Referring to the union’s multifaceted education program, which she built from the ground up, Roberts told Network Journal that, “By offering educational opportunities to hardworking men and women, you give them a boost up the career ladder and a shot at the American Dream. Our union doesn’t just fight for them as workers; we fight for the whole person.”

The article told how Roberts became a union activist as she worked as a nurse’s aide in a Chicago hospital. Roberts “didn’t believe in injustice of any kind,” and when she saw co-workers being mistreated, she wanted to help.

From those beginnings came the woman who now fights tirelessly for the rights of the 121,000 members and 50,000 retirees of DC 37, as well as millions more as a vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York City Central Labor Council and the secretary of the Municipal Labor Committee.