US Labor Leader@ASU May 1

Top Union Leader Speaks at ASU on Monday - May 1

- AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond is a guest of ASU's History and Political Science Department.

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU

One of the nation's top labor leaders within the AFL-CIO will participate in an event on May 1, (Monday) on the Alabama State University campus. The event is sponsored by the University's Department of History and Political Science, and will mark International Worker's Day. 

Fred Redmond, international secretary-treasurer of one of the most powerful unions in the world -- according to data from the U.S. department of Labor in Washington, D.C. -- will speak at the invitation of Dr. Derryn Moten, chairman of the department of History and Political Science and himself, a union leader.

The session will be held at 11 a.m. in the Ralph David Abernathy auditorium. 

"I have invited Mr. Redmond to join us on our historic campus that was made famous through the civil rights movement because organized labor and civil rights go well together. They were closely associated once and we need to close our ranks once again and engage our students to get involved, which will benefit them within their careers, economically and in turn, help enhance the middle-class and people of color in the nation," Moten said by phone.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

ASU's history chair said Redmond, a Chicago native who now resides in Washington, D.C., has been involved in the labor movement since the early 1970's and has gradually risen through the ranks to become the nation's highest ranking Black labor leader and one of the most powerful union leaders overall. 

UNIONS AND CIVIL RIGHTS

Organized labor (unions) and the civil rights movement have a long-standing relationship of working together for common goals and aspirations, which Moten said was a magnet for getting Redmond to speak on ASU's campus on the most important day for labor within the entire year - May 1.

Moten said that the two entities began associating themselves beginning with civil rights pioneer and African-American, A. Philip Randolph, who organized and led, beginning in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which was the first successful Black unions and the one of which Montgomery Bus Boycott leader, E.D. Nixon was a member.  

"The date of May 1 is THE pinnacle date of any day of the year to celebrate the labor movement and by having Brother Redmond here at The Alabama State University, on that day, shows his earnest desire to send a clarion call to the University's students and to all of the students and young people of America."

News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.

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