LCCR Bestows Civil Rights Honor on Diverse Advocates: Gerald McEntee
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/27/2004
This article is the third in a series about 2004's Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner. The next installment will feature the Chairperson's Award honoree Irwin Jacobs.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) will honor organized labor leader Gerald McEntee at the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner on May 13, 2004. McEntee, International President of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), will be recognized for his work in coalition building in the civil rights movement.
The Humphrey Award, established 27 years ago, honors the legacy of former United States vice president, senator, and civil rights pioneer Hubert H. Humphrey, whose years of public service, leadership, and dedication to equal opportunity changed the face of America.
Although McEntee's position at AFSCME focuses on the protection of worker's rights, his dedication to social justice extends beyond the labor community. As treasurer of LCCR, he has been able to contribute to the continued growth and struggle of the civil rights community. McEntee is respected for being an advocate and articulate spokesperson for the contiguous causes of worker's and civil rights advocacy.
McEntee has been a labor leader for more than forty years. In Pennsylvania, he was president of the nation's largest public employee and health care workers' union. Beginning in 1958 as an AFSCME organizer in Philadelphia, Pa., he became the successful architect of a major public sector drive to unionize more than 75,000 Pennsylvania state employees. He was elected Executive Director at the founding convention of AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania in 1973, and an International Vice President of AFSCME in 1974.
Under President Clinton, McEntee served on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Quality and Consumer Protection in the Health Care Industry in 1997. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, the lead voice for working Americans on the economy. He also has led efforts to fortify workplace standards such as the minimum wage, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Currently McEntee's commitment to labor has him serving as a Vice President of the AFL-CIO, a member of its Executive Council, chair of the federation's Political Education Committee, and a member of its Organizing and Public Relations Committees. As chair of the Political Education Committee, McEntee developed the highly successful voter education campaigns from 1996 forward that thrust issues important to working families to the top of America's political agenda. In addition, he assembled the union leaders who initiated the "New Voice For American Workers" campaign that elected John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and AFSCME's Linda Chavez-Thompson to head the AFL-CIO in 1995.
McEntee is continuing the tradition of organized labor playing an active role in the civil rights struggle. Labor unions were central to the founding of LCCR -- initially half of the coalition's executive committee was labor oriented. As LCCR fights to protect against a rollback of hard-won civil rights, and works to incorporate all people into a vision of equality, McEntee's support has been invaluable. He has worked to build the coalition that today consists of more than 180 national organizations, representing people of color, women, children, older Americans, workers, people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, major religious groups and civil liberties and human rights groups.
