2011 Evening with Labor Winners: Outstanding Trade Unionist

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Michael Murphy (right) of IUOE Local 99 is this year’s winner of the JC Turner Award for Outstanding Trade Unionist of the Year. Mike, long-time active board member of both the Metro Council and the Community Services Agency, financially supports activities of both, has volunteers from his local active on all COPE committees, oversees an actively organizing local, and always has folks on Street Heat events, often including the popular “Big Man” inflatable engineer. Mike makes sure his local supports everything, from political campaigns to special activities, the CSA bowling and golf tournaments, Labor Night at the Nats, DC Labor FilmFest, makes holiday basket contributions, advertises the  agency to his members during United Way campaigns. And to top it all off, Mike is one of the most easy-going, genuinely nice guys in the local labor movement.
This is the fourth and final segment in our series this week highlighting this year’s Evening with Labor award winners, selected for their outstanding contributions to the metro-area labor movement in 2011. The 35th annual Evening with Labor is this Saturday; email kmckirch@dclaborarchives.org to reserve tickets. - photo courtesy of Michael Murphy