Dennis Serrette

Dennis Serrette

Dennis Serrette is Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer of the National Urban League.

CWA 2000-2011 Director of Education at Communications Workers of America. Lives in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

He died in 2024.

Education

Studied at National Labor College.

CBTU

The original 1972 leaders of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists included Dennis Serrette, CWA.

DC demo

April 15, 1978 — In one of the most militant and massive demonstrations held anywhere in the United States since the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, over 35,000 people, the majority Black, Asian and Latin youth, came to Washington, D.C., to voice their total opposition to the racist Bakke case now pending before the Nixon-packed U.S. Supreme Court.

Chanting “We won’t go back, send Bakke back,” the angry voices of thousands of youth from the oppressed communities demanding the overturn of the notorious Bakke decision, an end to racism and upholding of affirmative action programs were undoubtedly heard in the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court and the White House.

At the assembly point, the crowd enthusiastically waved their flags in the air as Dennis Serrette, chairman of the New York National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision, and Belinda Lightfoot, co-coordinator of the Washington National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision chaired the first rally, which heard from a number of individuals active in the struggle against racism and the Bakke decision. Some of the speakers represented were Alice Jennings, co-chairwoman of the Detroit National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision; Arthur Kinoy, progressive constitutional lawyer; Frank Schaefer-Corona, a member of the Washington, D.C., School Board; Odette King of the Asian Focus of the National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision; and Bernard Hughes, East Coast regional coordinator of the National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision.

1988 Maryland Rainbow Coalition State convention

Held December 3, 1988, nearly 100 attendees.

Officers elected;

• Danise Jones-Dorsey - new State Chair.
• Loretta Sibilia - Secretary
• Dennis Serrette - Treasurer
• Salima Siler Marriott - Vice Chair for membership
• James McDonough - Vice Chair for fundraising

Michael Meiselman of Machinists local 1140, welcomed the attendees. Key note was Dr. Alvin Thornton of Howard University.

Chicago meeting

This leaflet advertised a meeting on Saturday, November 20 to hear several speakers: Cosmo Pieterse, a South African freedom fighter and member of the African National Congress (ANC); Rev. Edgar Jackson, leader of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Movement in Chicago; Dennis Serrette, President, New York Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists ; and Claudette Furlonge, a leading member of Workers World Party.

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

In 2008, Dennis Serrette, Director of Education of Communication Workers of America (CWA), Washington, DC signed a statement circulated by the Partisan Defense Committee calling for the release of convicted “cop-killer” Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Open letter to Andy Stern

On May 1 2008, Dennis Serrette, signed an open letter to SEIU president Andy Stern in protest at SEIU move to force its local United Healthcare Workers into trusteeship.

"We are writing to express our deep concern about SEIU's threatened trusteeship over its third largest local, United Healthcare Workers (UHW). We believe that there must always be room within organized labor for legitimate and principled dissent, if our movement is to survive and grow. Putting UHW under trusteeship would send a very troubling message and be viewed, by many, as a sign that internal democracy is not valued or tolerated within SEIU. In our view, this would have negative consequences for the workers directly affected, the SEIU itself, and the labor movement as a whole. We strongly urge you to avoid such a tragedy."

Center for Labor Renewal

In 2009 Dennis Serrette was listed as an endorser of the Center for Labor Renewal.