Labor on the Move (11/13/07)

Douglas Brooks, Program Officer with the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center for 23 years retired at the end of September. Brooks coordinated the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), training over 3,500 foreign trade union leaders and government officials from 66 countries about the American labor movement, from US labor laws, OSHA and union organizing to collective bargaining, HIV/AIDS prevention and how foreign unions can respond to privatization and globalization issues.  A proud 37-year member of IBEW Local 613 in Atlanta, Georgia (where he headed the Central Labor Council from 1977 to 1983), Brooks “is equally proud” to continue his membership in OPEIU Local 2, the Solidarity Center staff union and says he plans “to remain an active trade unionist and continue to volunteer to work in the campaigns of labor-endorsed candidates with the Northern Virginia Labor Council and the Metro Washington Labor Council.” Brooks recently started a new career as the Director of Marketing for United Transportation, Inc., a unionized DC-area transportation company whose employees are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.