BAC’s Flynn, AFSCME’s Lucy Announce Retirements
Two major union leaders announced their retirement this week. On Monday, the Bricklayers (BAC) Executive Council elected James Boland as the union’s new president succeeding John Flynn, who retired after more than 10 years. Boland previously served as BAC’s secretary-treasurer.
Yesterday, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy announced he will retire, after serving 38 years in that post. His retirement is effective June 25. Delegates to the AFSCME convention on June 28-July 2 in Boston will choose his successor.
25th Anniversary of Free South Africa Movement: Solidarity Works
The union movement played a big role in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. In marches, political action and direct action, the Free South Africa Movement in the United States proved that international worker solidarity works. And its ripple effects impact not only workers-but each person on our planet.
Speaking last night at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., in honor of the 25th anniversary of The Free South Africa Movement, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said:
Victory over apartheid meant victory over racism, exploitation and abuse.
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Now Is Our Future
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The nation’s economic crisis is the result of failed trade policies and the lack of a U.S. industrial policy that creates and sustains good manufacturing jobs, according to Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) President Bill Lucy.
In his keynote address before 1,200 delegates at the CBTU’s annual convention May 21-25 in Atlanta, Lucy pointed out that as bad as the economy is for all working people, workers of color have been hardest hit. The strides made by African American workers in the 1990s have been wiped out in this current economic crisis, Lucy said, and millions of people of color are no longer making middle-class incomes. (See Video: May 21, Tab 16.)
The time has come to recognize that this is a key moment to make sweeping changes and turn the country around, he said. Quoting former President Franklin Roosevelt, Lucy said:
“Do you judge a nation’s greatness by what it gives those who already have too much or by what it gives to those who have too little? That question is as relevant today as it was 75 years ago.”
