Lillian Roberts, a revered labor leader known for her formidable advocacy on behalf of New York City municipal workers, died on July 9 in Manhattan at the age of 98. She passed away from cardiac arrest at a nursing facility, according to Ivan Smith, her nephew and one of the three sons she raised following the death of her sister.

Roberts rose to prominence beginning in the 1960s as a key figure within District Council 37 (DC 37), the largest municipal workers union in the United States. Representing more than 150,000 city employees across over 1,000 job titles, including nurses, maintenance crews, and zookeepers, DC 37 has long been a major force in public sector labor organization. Roberts, a Black woman navigating an era when labor leadership was predominantly white and male, spent nearly 14 years as the union’s associate director before later serving as executive director from 2002 to 2014.

Her leadership was marked by significant milestones, including the unionization of around 20,000 workers at New York City’s public hospitals, a campaign considered one of the largest organizing drives in the history of American labor. Roberts’s tenure was also characterized by a combative and unapologetically direct style. In 1968, she spent two weeks in jail after leading a strike against three state mental hospitals, an action that violated New York’s Taylor Law, which prohibits public sector strikes. The strike underscored her willingness to challenge government policies she saw as detrimental to workers and public services.

Roberts was also outspoken in her criticism of city government policies she believed endangered public health and workers’ rights. In the 1970s, she strongly opposed then-Mayor Abraham D. Beame’s plans to close several public hospitals, warning that such cuts would have deadly consequences.

Born Lillian Davis on January 2, 1928, in Chicago, she was the second of five children of Henry and Lillian (Henry) Davis, migrants from Mississippi who struggled during the Great Depression. Despite academic promise and receiving a scholarship, Roberts was forced to leave the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign due to financial constraints. She subsequently became the University of Chicago’s first Black nurse’s aide, a position she held while becoming actively involved in union work.

Roberts’s introduction to labor leadership came under Victor H. Gotbaum, a prominent and often controversial figure in the labor movement, who brought her to New York in 1965 to work with DC 37. Her rise within the union coincided with its rapid expansion in membership and influence.

In 1981, Roberts made history as the first Black woman to serve as New York State’s labor commissioner, where she advocated for workplace safety, equitable wages, and enhanced unemployment benefits before resigning in 1987 to enter the private sector.

Her return to DC 37 in 2002 came at a time when the union was grappling with internal corruption scandals and declining public trust. Despite challenges, including tense relations with city leadership under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and internal union disputes, she remained at the helm until her retirement in 2014 at age 86.

Colleagues remember Roberts for her fierce defending of workers’ rights and her readiness to confront political leaders, balanced by moments of quiet determination. “This union was my life’s work,” she once stated, capturing the decade-spanning commitment that defined her career.

Roberts is survived by Ivan Smith and his brothers Carl and Ralonzo Smith, whom she raised as her own, as well as the legacy of decades shaping public sector labor advocacy in New York City.