Executive Council Welcomes New Vice Presidents
Of the 51 vice presidents elected today to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, there are nine new additions, who are expanding the range of voices that will be heard. We congratulate the following new vice presidents of the AFL-CIO:
- Patrick D. Finley, Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA)
- M.B. “Mike” Futhey, United Transportation Union (UTU)
- Newton Jones, Boilermakers (IBB)
- D. Michael Langford, Utility Workers (UWUA)
- Robert McEllrath, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
- Roberta Reardon, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
- John Ryan, Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Works (GMP)
- DeMaurice Smith, Professional Athletes
- Baldemar Velasquez, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
National Memorial Dedicated to Fallen Workers
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| On Workers Memorial Day, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka take part in a dedication for a national workers memorial at the National Labor College. |
The names were repeated in a chorus of tragedy. Conrad Johnson, a bus driver killed by a sniper while taking a rest break. Linda Redman, a factory worker who died a slow, painful death from “popcorn lung” disease. An elevator operator killed when an elaveator crushed him on the job. Thirteen coal miners killed by an explosion when they went into a mine to rescue injured co-workers.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, these and dozens more workers were remembered by their co-workers, family and friends who placed bricks in their memory as part of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new national workers memorial at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md.
Hundreds of people who lost a loved one who was killed on the job have sponsored bricks for the memorial, which will be constructed in the center of the NLC campus.
New Job Safety Bill, Workers Memorial Day Events at Labor Dept., Labor College
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Fantastic news from Congress this week as we move closer to commemorating Workers Memorial Day on April 28. A new bill, the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067), introduced yesterday, will strengthen and modernize the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
How great it is to see the strong commitment by the Obama administration and the new Congress to worker safety and health after eight years of neglect and scorn for worker safety by the Bush White House.
This Workers Memorial Day, family members of workers killed on the job will join with safety and health activists in Washington, D.C., to attend two congressional hearings on workplace safety and health and gather for a Workers Memorial Day observance and rally at 8 a.m. on the front steps of the Department of Labor. Later that day, at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., we will join with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for a groundbreaking of a new national workers memorial.
