Welcome to Four New AFL-CIO Executive Council Members

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/04/welcome-to-four-new-afl-cio-executive-council-members/

by Mike Hall, Mar 4, 2008

A big welcome to the four new members named today to the AFL-CIO Executive Council. They are: Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD); Ann Converso, president of United American Nurses (UAN); Richard Hughes, president of the Longshoremen (ILA); and Fred Redmond, international vice president for Human Affairs for the United Steelworkers (USW).

Ayers was elected BCTD president in 2007. Prior to his election, the long-time member of the ElectricalWorkers (IBEW) was the union’s director of the Construction and Maintenance Department. He also served as business manager and financial secretary for IBEW Local 34 in Peoria, Ill. Ayers served as secretary-treasurer of the West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council.

UAN’s Converso has spent 30 years as an acute medical/surgical nurse and I.V. therapy nurse for the Veterans Affairs Western New York Health Systems. She was elected UAN vice president in 1999. She continues to serve as chairwoman of her local bargaining unit in Buffalo, where she helped lead the way for state legislation banning mandatory overtime and developing new rules to prevent accidental needlesticks.

Hughes joined the ILA when he went to work on the Baltimore docks in 1954. He served in several posts in the union’s Atlantic Coast District, including secretary-treasurer and executive vice president, before becoming ILA president in 2007. He also is a former local union leader, serving as president, business agent and in several other posts in ILA Local 953.

Redmond became a Steelworkers member in 1973 while working at an Illinois steel mill. He served in several local union offices and in 1996 joined the union’s national staff. Redmond has assisted in developing training programs for USW and was assistant director of USW District 7 before being elected a USW vice president in 2005.

Converso replaces former UAN President Cheryl Johnson, who died last year. The other new members are replacing retiring Council members Barbara Easterling, secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America (CWA); Leon Lynch, former USW vice president; and Ed Sullivan, former BCTD president.

Photos at link.