Chavez-Thompson – A Legacy of Leadership and Service

by   |  September 19, 2007

One of America’s most revered and respected labor leaders, Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and a former AFSCME International vice president, heads home to San Antonio and a well-deserved retirement on September 21. The daughter of cotton sharecroppers, Chavez-Thompson worked tirelessly for civil, human and workers’ rights and became the first woman of color elected as a top officer at the national AFL-CIO. She rose through AFSCME’s ranks, as business manager of AFSCME Local 2399 in San Antonio and then as founding executive director of Texas State Council 42. In 1988, she was elected an AFSCME International vice president, serving in that post for eight years. Chavez-Thompson also was a member of AFSCME’s Judicial Panel. Her life changed in 1994 when President McEntee asked her to become part of John Sweeney’s New Voice slate. She agreed and the next year, Chavez-Thompson was elected the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president. Despite her retirement, Chavez-Thompson is not ending her four-decade commitment to the Labor Movement. She now becomes the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president emerita, and will also continue to chair the AFL-CIO Immigration Committee, and lead the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), and the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) regional organization for the Americas. In addition, Chavez-Thompson will be an advisor to state federations and labor councils. Read more about Chavez-Thompson on the AFL-CIO Now blog and at AFSCME.org.