Alexis Herman, a Democratic Party insider who grew up under segregation in Alabama and went on to become the first Black secretary of labor, a position in which she helped settle a crippling strike by United Parcel Service workers, died on Friday in Washington. She was 77.
Her death, after a brief illness, was announced by her family. The announcement did not say where in Washington she died.
President Bill Clinton was familiar with Ms. Herman when he nominated her as labor secretary in his second term. She had been the chief executive of the 1992 Democratic National Convention; deputy director of Mr. Clinton’s transition team after he won the 1992 presidential election; and the White House’s public liaison director during his first term.
When he nominated her for labor secretary, President Clinton referred to her work at the Office of Public Liaison, a grass-roots organizer of support for administration policies. “She has been my eyes and ears,” he said, “working to connect the American people, business and labor, individuals and communities with their government.”
Ms. Herman was only three months into running the Labor Department when 185,000 unionized U.P.S. workers went on strike in early August 1997, hobbling package deliveries nationwide.
Ms. Herman spent five days going room to room at a Washington hotel to persuade leaders of the U.P.S. and the teamsters’ union to focus on the issues.
