AFL-CIO elections marked a new era during the federation’s 29th Convention, held in Philadelphia this past June. Liz Shuler was unanimously elected as president of the AFL-CIO, and Fred Redmond as secretary-treasurer. Shuler is the first woman to serve in the AFL-CIO’s highest leadership position, and Redmond is the first African American elected as the federation’s secretary-treasurer.— Aug 18
A Boilermaker delegation participated in the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association’s Annual Conference this past May in Sheffield, United Kingdom, as TSSA celebrated its milestone 125th anniversary.— Aug 16
While life may seem mostly back to normal in the United States following two years of COVID-19 pandemic protocols, that normalcy hasn’t yet reached Capitol Hill, as LEAP delegates discovered when attempting to visit their lawmakers late April. Some were directed to meet over Zoom, some had difficulty getting schedulers to return calls and some discovered new rules for meeting legislators in person.— Aug 10
With hydrogen gaining global interest in the mix of evolving climate change solutions, Boilermakers joined “Renewable Hydrogen: Energy’s Future,” a summit in Bilbao, Spain, in June. Hosted by Spanish union UGT FICA (Federation of Industry, Construction and Agriculture) and Fundacíon Anastasio de Garcia and in collaboration with IndustriALL Global Union, the summit addressed energy and industrial transformation and “just transition.”— Aug 8
As World War II’s grip tightened in Europe and the war’s global reach and threat increased, James “Hicksey” Banford volunteered for the army for the same reason many young men did back then: He knew America needed men to go and fight.
Banford ended up serving as one of the famed Merrill’s Marauders, the long-range penetration special ops jungle warfare unit that fought in the Southeast Asian theater (China-Burma-India Theater). The unit famously marched over 1,000 miles through dense jungle into Burma with no tanks or heavy artillery.— Aug 4
