Here’s a First: First Time in History Women Hold Two Top Positions in the North American Labor Movement
AFL-CIO’s Acting President Liz Shuler and Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske Address IFPTE Convention Tuesday
M E D I A A D V I S O R Y
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON -- Liz Shuler, the Acting President of the 11 million-member AFL-CIO, and Bea Bruske, the President of the 3.3 million-member Canadian Labour Congress, addressed the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) convention Tuesday afternoon. Shuler, who had previously served as the AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, became the leader of the U.S. labor federation after the loss of Richard Trumka to a fatal heart attack last week. Bruske was elected president of Canada’s labor federation in June. This is the first time the two top leaders of the North American labor movement are both women.
Shuler will join IFPTE leaders on stage in Washington, DC and Bruske will deliver remarks to the convention via video online.
IFPTE also will be adding a woman to its top leadership this week. Gay Henson, president of the EA/IFPTE Local 1937, the local union representing engineers and technical workers at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), will become IFPTE secretary-treasurer. At TVA, Henson worked at the Sequoyah Nuclear Station as a Project Control Specialist. For most of her career she was employed as a Health Physicist providing radiation protection to workers, the environment and the public.
IFPTE members are sometimes referred to as “the geeks of the labor movement.” The union represents engineers at Boeing, NASA rocket scientists, researchers at the Congressional Research Service, auditors at the Government Accountability Office and federal judges who hear cases related to immigration and Social Security matters, nuclear engineers and IT professionals employed by utilities in the United States and Canada such as PG&E, Bruce Power and Hydro One, along with lawyers and staff at many non-profit organizations, to name only a few of the highly-skilled occupations under the IFPTE umbrella.
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Watch AFL-CIO Acting President Liz Schuler and CLC President Bea Bruske speak to delegates at IFPTE’s 60th Convention
AFL-CIO Acting President Liz Schuler addresses IFPTE’s 60th Convention
Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske speaking at IFPTE’s 60th Convention