|
Linda Chavez-Thompson was elected executive vice president of the AFL-CIO at the federation's 1995 convention and was re-elected to a new four-year term in 2001 and again in July 2005. She is the first person to hold the post of AFL-CIO executive vice president, and she is the first person of color to be elected to one of the federation's three highest offices. A native of Lubbock, Texas, Chavez-Thompson is a second-generation American of Mexican descent. She brings to her work 35 years of experience in the labor movement, beginning in 1967 with her first work for the Laborers� local union in Lubbock. She went on to serve in a variety of posts with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in San Antonio, Texas, and became an international vice president in 1988, a post she held until 1996. She also served from 1986 to 1996 as a national vice president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, AFL-CIO. In 1993, Chavez-Thompson was elected and served a two-year term as one of 31 vice presidents on the Executive Council of the national AFL-CIO. As executive vice president of the federation, Chavez-Thompson represents the labor movement as a member of the board for several national organizations, including: Interfaith Worker Justice, the Institute for Women�s Policy Research, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. She serves as a member of the Board of Governors for United Way International and as a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. In April 2005, she was re-elected president of the ORIT, the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers, which is the Western Hemispheric arm of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. | 