The Amsterdam News was proud to host the 9th Annual Labor Awards Breakfast in Midtown Manhattan with Elise Bryant, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), presenting this year’s honorees and delivering an inspiring invocation.
The CLUW is the only national organization for union women, founded in the ’70s during the time of Roe v. Wade along with several other organizations. She is also co-executive director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and director of the DC Labor Chorus. In 2017, she was elected vice president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA)/Newspaper Guild Local 32035.
An accomplished playwright and social justice activist, Bryant got her start in the labor movement as a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”). She graduated from American University with a master’s of science degree in organizational development. She is also a labor educator and has taught at the University of Michigan Labor Studies Center and the National Labor College.
Bryant has received several awards, including the AmNews’ Labor Award on behalf of CLUW’s national officers of color and the Lifetime Achievement award from United Association of Labor Educators.
“I was deeply honored,” Bryant said at the breakfast event. “I respect the work of the Amsterdam News as an institution, and one of the purposes of newspapers is getting out the information that you’re not going to see [elsewhere]. I appreciate being recognized as part of that ongoing effort to make real the promise of America and democracy.”