Tyree Scott 1940-2003.

Tyree Scott, an organizer who dedicated his life to the struggle for justice for workers around the world, co-founder of the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO), died of prostate cancer on June 19 at age 63.

Born in Wharton County, Texas on May 29, 1940, Tyree Scott spent his lifetime working for racial justice. He led and worked with people of all backgrounds in a variety of social justice movements. Tyree was a retired electrician and member of IBEW, Local 46. He most recently worked on the Seattle waterfront repairing and maintaining the shipping cranes.

In the late 1960s, Tyree helped found the United Construction Workers' Association (UCWA) and organized other black workers in Seattle to force their way into the construction trades unions and win jobs at living wages as well as the right to join the union. Following on their success in Seattle, Tyree led a team of organizers to help black workers throughout the south-western United States organize to win access to jobs in heavy industry and construction in dozens of cities.

He then joined with Filipino American cannery workers to protest racial segregation in the Alaska canning industry and stood arm-in-arm with Asian Americans to fight the Marcos dictatorship of the Philippines.

In 1972, along with Filipino activists Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, Tyree built a human rights organization, LELO, that united black, Asian and Latino workers under one roof to fight for justice and fair treatment for all workers. Thirty-one years later, LELO continues to provide a voice for workers' issues the world over.

In the '80s, Tyree linked LELO to the struggles for national liberation in the Third World when he organized a worker-to-worker relief drive to deliver clothing, medical equipment, and a brick making machine to the newly liberated people of Mozambique. He and his family lived in Mozambique for two years, working along side the Mozambican people to develop a new reality for their country.

In 1997, Tyree led an effort to create LELO's International Worker-to-Worker Project. This project continues to build a communication and action network among grassroots workers' organizations around the world. The project has sponsored three international workers' meetings--bringing together more than 100 labor activists from Asia, Africa, Europe, South, Central and North America, and the Caribbean to develop strategies for challenging globalization.

Tyree was married to Beverly Sims, a member of LELO's board of directors, public health care worker, and leader of LELO's annual women's delegation to Cuba.

Tyree touched many people's lives in Seattle, the nation, and literally around the globe. His vision for a better world and his constant optimism that this world could exist was ingrained in every person he mentored, befriended, and loved.