(BUFFALO) - Buffalo AFL-CIO President Michael Hoffert will receive the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists' Isaac Myers Award when the Buffalo Chapter holds its annual dinner on Saturday, February 27th at the Buffalo/Niagara Convention Center in Downtown Buffalo.

The Reverend Darius Pridgen will serve as the dinner's keynote speaker.  Other awardees include the Reverend James Lewis, who will receive the CBTU's Community Service Award, and Gladys Daughtry, who will receive the Barbara Smith Memorial Chapter Award.

"Mike (Hoffert) has an extensive background within Labor and in Union achievements," CBTU 2nd Vice President Stacy Pettigrew tells WNYLaborToday.com of her organization's choice of Hoffert as this year's Isaac Myers Award Winner.  "He's a heartfelt guy and if you don't have a heart for people, you can't do this kind of job in Organized Labor."

Born in Baltimore in 1835, Isaac Myers became an apprentice caulker for the clipper ships coming into Baltimore harbor.  He led an effort to organize African-American caulkers and longshoreman after white skilled laborers attempted to have all dismissed.  This group of African-American workers formed a cooperative company that purchased a shipyard and continued to do business by raising money through stock certificates and purchased a shipyard in 1866.  In just six months, the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company employed 300 African-American workers at $3 a day and were able to obtain a number of government contracts and paid off their debts in a short five years.

In 1868, Myers became president of the Colored Caulker's Trades Union Society of Baltimore.  A year later, the National Labor Union recognized the gains made on behalf of the Colored Caulker's Trades Union Society of Baltimore and opened its conference to persons of all color.  Myers was invited to speak at that convention, and was one of just nine African-Americans who attended the convention.  Afterwards, he was elected president of the Colored National Labor Union - the first such national organization in American history.  Myers worked for the Colored NLU until 1872, when he left for employment with the Postal Service.  He died in 1891.

Hoffert tells WNYLaborToday.com he is "extremely honored" to receive the CBTU Isaac Myers Award and said it is his goal to bring more minorities into the Buffalo AFL-CIO Council. 

"I look at Issac Myers and the changes he not only lived through during his life, but mine as well, with the sixties and the fight for Civil Rights.  We've gotten past a lot of it, but there are still biases out there that are unwarranted.  My goal is to increase minority participation in the AFL-CIO and to help the CBTU chapter grow.  There are a number of very important issues they face and there are employers who are still reluctant to hire people of color," Hoffert said.

Over the years the CBTU Buffalo Chapter has honored a number of Buffalo-area and New York State Labor Leaders, including Western New York AFL-CIO Labor Federation President Angelo Vellake, CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) Western Region 6 President Florence Tripi and former New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) President Thomas Hobart.

Currently led by National President William Lucy - a founder and the first and only president of the CBTU, which was formed in 1972 - the CBTU consists of representative from 77 International and National Unions and has 42 Chapters, including Buffalo, across the U.S.

The Buffalo Chapter counts nearly 40 Unions as members, Pettigrew tells WNYLaborToday.com.  The Buffalo Chapter has also been instrumental in the growth of CBTU chapters that are now in Rochester, Syracuse and Ontario, Canada, she said. 

CBTU's mission is to "fulfill the dream of those Black Trade Unionists, both living and deceased, who throughout this century have courageously and unremittingly struggled to build a national movement that would bring all our strengths and varied talents to bear in the unending effort to achieve economic, political and social justice for every American."

CBTU's basis objectives are: Improve economic development and employment opportunities for African-American workers; Work within the framework of the Trade Union Movement to provide a voice and vehicle for greater African-American and minority participation; Increase Union involvement in voter registration, voter education and voter turnout projects; Organize unorganized workers; Actively support civil rights and civic groups working to improve living and working conditions in the African-American community; and Increase effective political alliances between Organized Labor, churches and the general community.

(Editor's Note: For more information, contact Stacey Pettigrew of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists/Buffalo Chapter at (716) 830-0982.  The CBTU's Annual Awards Dinner begins at 5 p.m., with dinner served at 6 p.m.  Tickets are $50 each.)