When leaders of the Executive Council picked Liz Shuler to become the youngest woman as AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, they felt no need to look further. She was talented, aggressive and had a trail of successes for her work on Enron in the Portland, Oregon local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and later as executive assistant to IBEW President Edwin Hill.
Read the the rest of this column.
The AFL-CIO hierarchy, after fielding a slate of 51 candidates for Vice President seats on the Executive Council, brusquely, and illegally, barred me, the only challenging candidate, from being nominated, thereby avoiding the need for an election that would have been embarrassing. It was the fourth consecutive time that the AFL-CIO leadership had gained four-year terms, without any opposing candidates and without debate or even the slightest involvement of union members
Read the the rest of this column.
# # #
Video, "AFL-CIO Tops Rig 2009 Election Rules To Stop Candidate Harry Kelber From Running"
Harry Kelber, a labor educator and journalist was prevented from running as a candidate for the AFL-CIO 2009 Executive Board election. Although there are 43 spots available no other candidates have even sought to get elected. In order to prevent Harry from running as he did at the last election the rules have been changed illegally to violate the constitution.
Watch Harry Kelber's Interview
# # #
'My Seventy Years
in the
Labor Movement'
10 Highlights of Harry Kelber's Unique Career
1. During the Great Depression, Harry led a four-month strike at a major food market in Brooklyn, N.Y, that ended with a good union contract.
2. At age 25, Harry was editor of two independent weekly labor newspapers that covered CIO organizing campaigns, as well as the activities of teamster and construction unions.
3. At age 50, Harry earned a B.A. from Brooklyn College and an M.A. and PhD. from New York University - all within 5-1/2 years.
4. In the 1962-63 printers' strike that shut down New York City's daily newspapers for 114 days, Harry was editor of the Daily Strike Bulletin.
5. As the legislative director of the Physicians Forum, Harry played a key role in winning social security for the nation's doctors.
6. In 1968, Harry created and became the first director of Cornell University's Two-Year Labor/Liberal Arts Program.
7. In recognition of his distinguished teaching career, Empire State College created the Dr. Harry Kelber Endowment in Labor Studies.
8. At age 70, Harry became the Educational and Cultural Director of Electrical Workers Local 3, I.B.E.W., a position he held for nearly six years.
9. In 1992, Harry led a week-long seminar in Moscow for 145 labor leaders of the former Soviet Union on the theme, "Democratic Unions in a Market Economy."
10. In 1995, at age 81, Harry ran for a vice president seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council to force the first election ever, in which a rank-and-filer challenged incumbent officers.
You will be fascinated by the stories
surrounding
each of Kelber's accomplishments
$25 per copy (includes mailing)
370 pages - 8 pages of photographs
Click here to purchase 'My Seventy Years in the Labor Movement.
Daily News, "Spotlight on Great People: His [Harry Kelber] 70-year battle for the rights of workers," by Clem Richardon, October 10, 2008
Read the article on Harry Kelber
Harry Kelber's poetic commentary on "CEO Lust,"
delivered at Labor Notes conference May 2006.
You can see and hear Harry
reciting his poem by clicking below.
You can read Harry's poem by clicking here.
There have been
There have been
visits to this website
Since October 4, 2004.