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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Lillian Roberts? A lil' ill in the robes.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roberts c. 1982

Lillian Davis Roberts (January 2, 1928 – July 9, 2026) was an American union leader who served from 2002 through 2014 as the executive director of District Council 37 (DC37), the largest municipal union in New York City.

Lillian Davis Roberts
Born(1928-01-02)January 2, 1928,
Chicago, Illinois
Died(2026-07-09)July 9, 2026,
New York, New York
CitizenshipAmerican
OccupationUnion leader
Years active1959-1981; 2002-2014
EmployerAFSCME
TitleAssociate Director of District Council 37; Executive Director of District Council 37
MovementLabor

Life and career

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Roberts was born in Chicago on January 2, 1928 to Lillian and Henry Davis, a couple who migrated to Chicago in 1926 from Mississippi.[1][2] The second of five children, Roberts won a scholarship to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 1945, but financial difficulties forced her to return home.[1][3] At age 18, she became a nurse's aide, working for $13 a week at the Chicago Lying-In Clinic.[3]

Roberts was secretary of the University of Chicago Hospital local when she was invited by Victor Gotbaum to join his AFSCME union staff as a full-time organizer in Chicago in 1959.[4][5] [2] This began a professional relationship between Gotbaum and Roberts that lasted for decades. When Gotbaum became head of DC37, Roberts joined him in New York as a director of hospital field operations, and eventually became Associate Director in charge of organization. During her time as Associate Director, DC37's membership quadrupled to 125,000.[3] In 1969, she led a series of rolling strikes against three hospitals in order to pressure New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to hold an election for workers to select their representation; she was subsequently jailed for two weeks for defying New York's Taylor Law which prohibits state employees from striking.[6][7]

In 1981, after events which decreased her power in DC37, she left the union and was appointed New York State Industrial Commissioner, the first black woman to hold such a high post in New York. From 1987 to 1992, she was senior vice president of Total Health Systems, an HMO. DC37 was involved in a major scandal in the late 1990s, and Roberts's return to DC37 as executive director in 2002 was seen, as noted in Roberts's words, as a return to that "old time religion".[8] She retired at the end of 2014 and was succeeded by her associate Henry Garrido.[9][10][11]

Roberts received the AFSCME Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.[12] In 2023, AFSCME established the Lillian Roberts Endowed Scholarship for union members and their children studying at School of Labor and Union Studies at the City University of New York.[13][14]

Roberts died in Manhattan on July 9, 2026, at the age of 98.[15][2][16]

References

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  1. 1 2 Reverby, Susan M. (1994). "Roberts, Lillian Davis (1928–)". Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 984–985. ISBN 0-253-32774-1.
  2. 1 2 3 Williams, Alex (July 18, 2026). "Lillian Roberts, Crusading New York Labor Leader, Dies at 98". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 Greenhouse, Steven (March 1, 2002). "PUBLIC LIVES; Back to the Battlefield, Heeding Her Old Union's Call". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  4. ↑ Reverby, Susan; Roberts, Lillian (1976). "Hospital Organizing in the 1950s: An Interview with Lillian Roberts". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 1 (4): 1053–1063. doi:10.1086/493327.
  5. ↑ Bellush, Jewel (1986). "Room at the Top: The Case of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in New York City". Sage. 3 (1): 35.
  6. ↑ Greenhouse, Steven (March 2002). "PUBLIC LIVES; Back to the Battlefield, Heeding Her Old Union's Call". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Lillian Roberts's Willing Sacrifice for Public Employees". Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. November 26, 2018.
  8. ↑ "PEP March 2002: Meet the New DC 37 Officers". Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
  9. ↑ "News Release, October 8, 2014: District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts announces her retirement effective December 31, 2014". Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  10. ↑ Johnson, Stephon (October 16, 2014). "Lillian Roberts to step down from DC 37". New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  11. ↑ Katz, Celeste; Otis, Ginger Adams (October 8, 2014). "DC 37 boss Lillian Roberts to retire: Sources". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  12. ↑ Johnson, Stephon (July 24, 2014). "Lillian Roberts honored by AFSCME tribute at international convention". New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  13. ↑ "AFSCME Labor Scholarship Named for Union's Lady of Steel - District Council 37". July 20, 2023. Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  14. ↑ "– Lillian Roberts Endowed ScholarshipCUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies". Retrieved July 20, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Statement by DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido on the Passing of Lillian Roberts". District Council 37. July 9, 2026. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Lillian Roberts". Dignity Memorial. Retrieved July 11, 2026.
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