Post-WWII Era
Fitzpatrick died in office in September 1946 at the age of 75. His successor was William A. Lee, a vice president of the Teamsters. Lee expanded CFL's role in the politics. Although personally a conservative, Lee continued to support a broad liberal agenda. Lee was a close friend to Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and a very strong backer of the Cook County Democratic Party. Although the AFL and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged in 1955, the respective Chicago bodies did not do so until 1962. Lee was elected president of the unified organization, and remained so until his death in 1984.
Since Lee's death, there have been six presidents of the Chicago Federation of Labor, about one every five years. Twice (Robert Healey and Don Turner) the presidency has gone to a member from the Chicago Federation of Teachers, giving the teachers union a top spokesperson in the labor federation for 14 of the last 23 years. Healey was the first president since Charles Dold in 1905 to retire from the presidency rather than die in office. Under Healey, the CFL began to distance itself from its close relationship with the Democratic Party to take a more independent stance on issues. Under Turner, the CFL emphasized community investment, workforce development, affordable living, and an end to urban sprawl.
The current president, Jorge Ramirez, has fostered a new emphasis on grassroots politics, while also focusing on civic involvement and the advocacy for union industries in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois as a whole. Ramirez, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1546, is the first minority to be elected to the CFL presidency.
Read more about this topic: Chicago Federation Of Labor
Famous quotes containing the word era:
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)