In The News
Chavez-Thompson resigns top AFL-CIO position
Linda Chavez-Thompson, who has been the AFL-CIO's executive vice president for 11 years, arranged to step down from that post Sept. 21, John J. Sweeney, the labor federation’s president, told union leaders.
As the No. 3 official at the nation’s largest labor federation,and the first person of color to hold top office, Chavez-Thompson, 63, took the lead in contacts with immigrant workers, in modernizing labor councils and in developing immigration policy. Those roles made her a frequent Wisconsin visitor.
Sweeney nominated Arlene Holt-Baker, an African-American who is one of his top assistants and who headed the labor movement’s response to Hurricane Katrina, to be the federation’s next executive vice president.