For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 06, 1999
AFSCME Gears Up Organizing Efforts; Names Regional Directors
WASHINGTON —The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has named three new regional directors and a new International director for its aggressive organizing program. The appointments and restructuring of AFSCME’s Organizing and Field Services department reflects the mandate for union growth set by delegates at AFSCME’s last biennial convention.
“To continue to win battles amidst right-wing attacks on Labor and pressure to privatize public services, we must must grow,” said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. “We will work cooperatively at all levels of our union in this organizing efforts -- at the local, council and national levels.”
Focusing largely on the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions will be new Regional Director Shirley Aldebol, formerly organizing director for the union’s successful effort to win collective bargaining rights for public employees in Puerto Rico. Aldebol and her staff will be based in the New York City metropolitan area, and will assist organizing efforts in the surrounding areas. Aldebol graduated from Barnard College in New York City. She worked as a child welfare caseworker and supervisor and was a leader in AFSCME Local 371.
Midwest Regional Director Steve Fantauzzo will direct organizers from his operations base in Indianapolis. Formerly, Fantauzzo was executive director of AFSCME Indiana Council 62 and an International vice president. With degrees from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, Fantauzzo began working with AFSCME in 1978 as a senior labor economist and has worked with the union in various leadership positions ever since.
Bob Lawson will be the West Coast Regional Director, based in Oakland, California. He has been a union, community and political organizer in both California and Chicago, and has served as field director for the California Democratic Party, chief of staff for the mayor of Berkeley and assistant area director for AFSCME’s California operations. Lawson, most recently, was assistant director of organizing at the AFL-CIO. He attended the University of California at Berkeley.
Coordinating the union’s organizing efforts nationwide will be Director of Organizing and Field Services Jim Schmitz. He is responsible for AFSCME’s national organizing program, and the operations of the union’s field offices and 100 national organizing staff persons. Schmitz began his work with AFSCME in 1979 and has served in leadership positions in New York State, Arizona and Nevada, as well as in the International office.
