Arlene Holt Baker - AFL-CIO Career

AFL-CIO Career

In 1995, John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO, unseating incumbent Thomas R. Donahue. Sweeney's running mate, Linda Chavez-Thompson, was elected the labor federation's Executive Vice-President. Chavez-Thompson, a local AFSCME leader from Texas, hired Holt Baker as her executive assistant.

Holt Baker was given a number of assignments in addition to her duties as an executive assistant to Chavez-Thompson. In 1998, she led the AFL-CIO's successful effort to defeat California Proposition 226, which would have denied dues check-off to public employees belonging to unions and required all union members in the state to annually give their assent before any portion of their dues could be used for political purposes.

Holt Baker's success in leading this campaign caused her to be named an executive assistant to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney in 1999. She held this position until her appointment as Executive Vice-President. Among her duties as assistant to Sweeney was her role as AFL-CIO liaison to religious groups. Holt Baker's primary duty as Sweeney's assistant, however, was as director of the AFL-CIO's Voice@Work campaign. A precursor effort to American Rights at Work and Working America, the Voice@Work project was designed to build community support for union organizing efforts.

As a top aide to Sweeney, Holt Baker was repeatedly tapped to head up AFL-CIO political efforts. In 2000, she led a coalition of labor unions which registered voters and mobilized supporters in Pennsylvania, an important electoral battleground for unions. Labor's efforts in Pennsylvania were cited as critical to winning the state for the Democratic column. Holt Baker led the same coalition a second time in 2002, helping Ed Rendell win the gubernatorial election.

Holt Baker's political work for the AFL-CIO continued in 2003. She was named president of the Working America Alliance, a 527 group established by a coalition of AFL-CIO member unions. Later that year, she became president of Voices For Working Families (VFWF), another 527 group which eventually became the 14th largest fundraiser among all 527s that year. Holt Baker's work for Voices for Working Families was so successful that the Republican Party filed a complaint against VFWF and 13 other 527 groups with the Federal Election Commission. The complaint, which was eventually dismissed, alleged that VFWF and the other 527s were illegally coordinating their electoral efforts with John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Sweeney named Holt Baker manager of his (successful) 2005 campaign for re-election as president of the AFL-CIO.

In 2005 and 2006, Holt Baker led the AFL-CIO's Hurricane Katrina recovery response in Louisiana and Mississippi. She coordinated disaster relief in the first few months after the natural disaster, and then oversaw AFL-CIO investment and building programs in the region.