Pride at Work (P@W) is an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group (LGBTQ+) of labor union activists affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

The National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS), which represented workers on luxury liners,[1] included among its leaders the openly gay Stephen R. Blair.

NUMCS was derided as "red, black and queer" for its leftist politics, racial integration and the large number of gay members.

"[3] Blair's life-partner, Frank McCormick, was a vice president of the California Congress of Industrial Organizations and an important leader in the 1934 West Coast longshore strike.

[1] Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,[7][8][9] later became the first executive secretary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

[7][11] Openly gay Bill Olwell became an international vice president of the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) in 1972, and was later elected to a similar position with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in 1986 after the RCIU merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters to form the UFCW.

As part of its anti-union efforts, the company administered lie-detector tests to prospective employees asking about their union views.

[18][20] In 1979, the quadrennial convention of the AFL-CIO unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the enactment of federal legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

This claim led to accusations by some members of the executive council and the LGBT union community that those opposing affiliation were homophobic.

From the outset, however, PAW was given full access to AFL-CIO state and local labor councils and international member unions, enhancing its research and mobilization efforts substantially.

Each June 30 in a non-convention year, smaller chapters may seek recognition from the organization to determine whether they meet the 5 percent cut-off mark.

The organization educates LGBTQ+ people about their rights as workers, the organized labor movement and the principles of trade union solidarity; encourages and assists LGBTQ+ workers to organize and to become active participants in the trade union movement; opposes discrimination on the job and in unions based on sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, religion or political views; encourages LGBTQ+ workers to register and vote to exercise their full rights and responsibilities of citizenship at the local, state and national levels; and educates the union movement and the public about the economic and social needs and interests of LGBTQ+ workers.

PAW also helps educate union members on larger political questions of importance to the LGBTQ+ community, such as gender identity-anti-discrimination protections and marriage equality.

Nationally, PAW led the struggle for domestic partnership benefits, an issue important to LGBTQ+ couples and non-married heterosexuals.

After enactment of the amendment (known as Proposal 2), Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm questioned the legality of providing state-funded domestic partnership benefits.

Pride at Work argued in its brief that domestic partnership benefits are a contractual relationship unrelated to marital status and are not preempted by the amendment.

On April 11, 2006, a panel of three Michigan Court of Appeals judges heard oral arguments on the amendment prohibiting public employers from offering domestic partner benefits.

On February 2, 2007, a unanimous three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals ruled that the amendment bans domestic partner benefit plans.

The ruling dismissed Pride at Work's claim that the amendment deprives same-sex couples of the equal protection of the law.