USW’s Redmond Honored to Receive NAACP Northeast Region’s Civil Rights Advocacy Training Institute Award for Labor Leadership

Contact: Tony Montana (412) 562-2592; tmontana@usw.org

PITTSBURGH – The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that International Vice President Fred Redmond will be honored to accept the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Dr. Annie B. Martin Labor Leader Award at its annual Northeast Region Civil Rights Advocacy Training Institute on Friday, April 26, 2013, at the Westin Convention Center Hotel.

“No individual can take on the responsibilities of fighting for more and better jobs, improving our children’s education and restoring vitality to our communities by himself or herself, which makes this recognition very humbling,” Redmond said. “I’m very proud of the work we are doing and see no limit to what we can accomplish if we continue to grow as a collective.”

In 2007, Redmond was elected to the board of directors of AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America in May and elected chairman of the A. Philip Randolph Institute board of directors by unanimous assent in August. He is the Region 6 representative of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and has served on the AFL-CIO Executive Council since 2008. In 2010, Redmond joined the TransAfrica Forum board of directors.

The NAACP Northeast Region’s award for labor leadership is named after Dr. Annie B. Martin, a pioneer of the labor and civil rights movements who began her career as a member and Local 8-138 officer in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, which eventually became the USW through a series of mergers. Among her many accomplishments, Martin was a 16-term president of the New York City NAACP branch and served as New York state assistant commissioner of labor under three governors.

Service Employees International Union 32BJ Vice President Kyle Bragg will also collect a Martin Award, while Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. will be honored with the Regional Director Award. Pittsburgh City Councilman Daniel Lavelle will accept the Bill Lynch Political Courage Award, and New York NAACP State Conference President Dr. Hazel Dukes will receive the Medgar Wiley Evers Medal of Freedom.

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