AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ELECTS LIZ SHULER AS PRESIDENT, FRED REDMOND AS SECRETARY-TREASURER
The AFL-CIO Executive Council voted Friday to elect Liz Shuler as president. Shuler is the first woman in the federation’s history to hold the top office.
United Steelworkers International Vice President Fred Redmond was elected to succeed Shuler as secretary-treasurer. He is the first African American to serve in the federation’s number two role.
Tefere Gebre will continue to serve as executive vice president, rounding out the most diverse team of officers ever to lead the AFL-CIO.
Shuler will complete the term of long-time AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who died earlier this month at the age of 72.
Delegates representing the AFL-CIO’s 56 affiliates, labor councils and constituent groups will vote on a permanent successor at their national convention in June 2022.
Shuler grew up in a union household in Oregon and went to work as an IBEW organizer in 1993.
After serving as an international representative in the IBEW’s Political/Legislative Affairs Department, she assumed a leading role in advancing the union’s strategic agenda in Washington, DC.
In 2009, she became the first woman elected to the position of AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and the youngest to hold a seat on the federation’s Executive Council.
“I am humbled, honored and ready to guide this federation forward,” Shuler said after her election.
“I believe in my bones the labor movement is the single greatest organized force for progress.”
“This is a moment for us to lead societal transformations—to leverage our power to bring women and people of color from the margins to the center—at work, in our unions and in our economy, and to be the center of gravity for incubating new ideas that will unleash unprecedented union growth.”
Fred Redmond served three terms as president of a USW local and then assumed staff and leadership roles in the international, assisting locals, developing and conducting training programs and bargaining contracts.
As international vice president for human affairs, he oversaw the Civil and Human Rights Department, as well as the union’s shipbuilding, health care and public sector bargaining, and worked with USW allies across the country responding to attacks on voting rights and combating economic inequality.
He has a long history of leadership on national and international boards, including the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
“I could not be more excited to get to work with President Shuler so we can build on the labor movement’s legacy of change, writing a new chapter that brings the promise of union membership to workers across this country,” Redmond said after his election.
“This is the right team at the right time to help bring about the economic and social justice America is hungry for.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Kekeris/AFL-CIO
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