Tefere Gebre | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 15, 1968 |
| Education | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (BA) |
Tefere Gebre is an Ethiopian-American labor and human rights activist, and the Chief Program Officer of Greenpeace USA. From 2013 until 2022, he was the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. [1] [2]
When he was 14 years old, Gebre fled Ethiopia, walking for weeks to Sudan. He lived in a refugee camp in Sudan until he was 15, when he was granted political refuge status and arrived in Los Angeles alone. [2] [3]
Gebre graduated in 1987 from Belmont High School in downtown Los Angeles. He attended Cal Poly Pomona on a track and field scholarship, and later graduated from the college with a bachelor's degree in International Marketing. While in college, he worked his first union job as a night shift loader at UPS and a member of Teamsters Local 396. He credits his union job for making it possible for him to afford to attend college. [1] [4]
Early in his career, Gebre worked for then-Speaker of the California State Assembly, Willie L. Brown Jr., as a legislative aid and was twice elected as President of the California Young Democrats. He was the first Black-American and first immigrant elected to lead the California Young Democrats. [1]
Gebre's first union organizing effort in Orange County was a successful campaign for sanitation workers. [4] He served as the Executive Director of Frontlash, which was then the youth and college arm of the AFL-CIO. From 1997 to 1999, Gebre was Director of Governmental Relation for Laborers Local 270. He later served as the Southern California Political Director of the California Labor Federation. [1]
In 2006, Gebre began working for the Orange County Labor Federation, an umbrella organization of 90 unions, first as its Political Director, and then beginning in 2008 as the group's Executive Director. As director, he was credited with helping to "turn the umbrella group of unions into a political force in what remains Republican territory." [1] [3] [5]
As part of an effort to defeat California Proposition 32 on the 2012 ballot, Gebre led the Orange County federation through an extensive voter outreach and education effort that was credited as playing a critical role in the defeat of the initiative. [5]
Labor activists suggested Gebre's election "represents a generational and philosophical change at the federation -- one that values new progressive partnerships and non-traditional organizing." [3] During the convention at which Gebre was elected, the AFL-CIO highlighted worker organizing campaigns that used non-traditional models of organizing within immigrant communities. [6]
In an interview with Huffington Post, Gebre said, "I have personally never seen a labor meeting more open and ready to bring in more people - a labor movement that is now willing to speak up for the people who sweat behind the counters and in the kitchens of McDonald's, the cab drivers, the domestic workers, and the day laborers." [3]
Gebre was the Executive Vice President of AFL-CIO. He was given the "Roving Ambassador for Peace” award in 2017.[ citation needed ]
Gebre joined Greenpeace USA as the organization’s Chief Program Officer in March 2022. [7] The New York Times said his appointment signals “the growing importance of ties between labor and environmental organizers on climate change.” [8]
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 60 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers. The AFL-CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of progressive and pro-labor policies.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hospitality; agriculture; cannabis; chemical trades; security; textile, and health care. UFCW is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the AFL–CIO; it disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO in 2005 but reaffiliated in 2013. UFCW is also affiliated to UNI Global Union and the IUF.
John Joseph Sweeney was an American labor leader who served as president of the AFL–CIO from 1995 to 2009.
Linda Chavez-Thompson is a second-generation Mexican-American and union leader. She was elected the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and served until September 21, 2007. She was also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1997 to 2012 and served as a member of the board of trustees of United Way of America. She was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in the 2010 election.
Thomas Reilly Donahue Jr. was an American trade union leader who served as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1979 to 1995, interim president for several months in 1995, and was President Emeritus from 1996 until his death. He was considered one of the most influential leaders of the post-World War II American trade union movement.
Florida AFL–CIO is a statewide federation of labor unions in the state of Florida affiliated with the AFL–CIO. The federation's membership consists of about 450 local unions from 41 international unions. The headquarters of the organization are located in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Latino organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation. It was founded in 1972 to provide Latino trade union members in the United States with a more effective voice within the AFL-CIO, to encourage Latino participation in the democratic process, and to encourage the organization of Latino workers into labor unions.
The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) is a nonprofit organization of Asian-Pacific American trade union members affiliated with the AFL–CIO. It was the "first and only national organization for Asian Pacific American union members".
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL–CIO (DPE) is a semi-autonomous "trade" department of the AFL–CIO, and serves as an advocate for professional workers within the federation, and before legislative bodies, the press and the public.
The Maine AFL–CIO is a federation of AFL–CIO-affiliated labor unions in the state of Maine.
María Elena Durazo is an American politician serving in the California State Senate. A Democrat, from 2018 to 2022 she represented the 24th State Senatorial district and has been representing the 26th district since 2022 which encompasses Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Vernon.
Emil Rieve was an American labor leader. He was president of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) from 1939 to 1956, a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1939 to 1955, and a vice president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1960.
Arlene Holt Baker is an American trade union activist and labor leader. A staff assistant with the AFL-CIO since 1995, she was appointed executive vice-president of the labor federation by the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 2007 and won re-election in 2009. She became the first African American in the federation's history to serve as an officer.
Richard Webster Cordtz was an American labor leader. From 1980 to 1995, he was the International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union under John Sweeney, and was president of the union himself from October 1995 to May 1996.
Greenpeace USA is the United States affiliate of Greenpeace International, an environmental nonprofit organization that spawned a social movement inspired by direct actions on the high seas to stop whaling and nuclear testing. Headquartered in Washington D.C., Greenpeace U.S.A. operates with an annual budget of approximately $40 million, employing over 500 people in 2020. The organization relies on donations from members, refuses corporate contributions and refrains from endorsing political candidates, though in 2020 Greenpeace USA issued climate scorecards for presidential candidates and ranked them from best to worst on climate
Elizabeth H. Shuler is an American labor activist and, since August 5, 2021, President of the AFL–CIO. She is the first woman to be elected president of the federation. She was previously the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position of Secretary-Treasurer. She is the highest-ranking woman in the labor federation's history. From her election to the retirement of Arlene Holt Baker in 2013 was the first time that two of the three officer positions in the AFL–CIO were held by women; her election as president with Fred Redmond succeeding her as Secretary-Treasurer marked the first time two of the three positions were held by African Americans.
Lee A. Saunders is a leader of the labor movement in the United States. He was elected to succeed Gerald W. McEntee as President of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the largest and most politically active unions in the AFL-CIO, on June 21, 2012, during the union's 40th International Convention in Los Angeles. Saunders served as Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME from 2010 to 2012.
The Pennsylvania AFL–CIO is a federation of labor unions in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in the United States. It is an affiliate of the AFL–CIO. It was formed on June 9, 1960, by the merger of two predecessor bodies, the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor and the Pennsylvania Industrial Union Council. It can trace its history through its predecessor bodies to 1890.
National Taxi Workers' Alliance (NTWA) is a United States labor union that was founded in February 1998 by organizers in New York City, as the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance. On August 3, 2011, the NTWA made history when it became the 57th affiliate of the AFL–CIO. NTWA is the first non-traditional workforce made up of independent contractors who don't work for an hourly wage to be granted membership into the AFL–CIO, the oldest labor federation in the country. The Executive Council of the AFL–CIO voted unanimously "to include the NTWA into the house of labor with a national unionize taxi drivers throughout the United States". The union is made up of 200,000 taxi workers operating 100,000 vehicles serving 1 billion riders per year.
George Baldanzi was an American trade unionist. He was the founding executive vice president of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA), and had a rivalry with Emil Rieve, the founding president of the organization. This rivalry led to his ouster from the TWUA in 1952, after which he joined the United Textile Workers of America as national organizing director. Following the merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) into the AFL-CIO in 1958, Baldanzi was president of the United Textile Workers of America from 1958 until his death in 1972.