BILL LUCY SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Bill Lucy is a civil rights legend.
(photos by Bess Watts)

The Voice Reporter received an email from Mr. Lucy earlier today.We thought you should read this for yourself.

Dear Leaders of AFSCME,

I write to you now because I have grown weary of the constant efforts by Mr. McEntee and Mr. Saunders to tarnish my service and myself with the union and its leadership for their own political gain. The recent strange report from Mr. McEntee at the end of the teleconference covering the critical issues faced by the union, regarding my status with the AFL-CIO and my status with AFSCME, is just one further example.

Let me say up front, upon my retirement from the union earlier this year I chose to support the candidacy of Danny Donohue. I had a choice, as each of you had a choice. Recent events have convinced me more than ever I was right.

To put this in perspective, about a month after my retirement I was notified by the AFL-CIO that Mr. Saunders and Mr. McEntee sought my removal from the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO, to which I was selected in 1995. You were given some reason for this action, the AFL-CIO was given some reasons and sometimes the reasons were the same.

To set the record straight, at no time since my retirement have I indicated to the AFL-CIO or anyone else that I spoke for AFSCME, nor have I insisted on speaking for AFSCME, as many of you have been told. Secondly, contrary to what many of you have been told, I did not seek to remain a member of the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO to prevent Mr. Saunders from becoming a member, and nothing could be further from the truth.

I sought to retain my position that I was elected to by the delegates unanimously at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention. A number of the executive board of AFSCME who were called upon by the leadership to write letters to others on this issue have called to express their apologies and hoping this matter is laid to rest. I say to them and I say to you, this matter is laid to rest if that is where it is left.

I still serve on the AFL-CIO Executive Council. I serve as Chair of the International Affairs Committee, Vice Chair of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, a member of the Education, Public Policy, Civil, Human and Women's Rights Committees, and I appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve.

As Mr. McEntee reported on the teleconference, the American Postal Workers Union made membership available to me and I am very grateful to them, but that has nothing to do with AFSCME.

I remain a retired member of AFSCME, my retirement check is from AFSCME, my 401(k) account is with AFSCME, my insurance is with AFSCME, my deferred compensation is with AFSCME, and while I seek no other involvement than that granted other retirees, I will not allow myself and my service to be the subject of the ongoing hallucinations of the AFSCME officers.

In solidarity,


William Lucy

What everyone should know about Bill:

For over three decades William (Bill) Lucy was at the fore-front of the labor movement. As Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for 30-plus years, Lucy helped the group grow from 200,000 to over 1.4 million members in 3,500 unions nationwide.

He also helped define the role of African Americans in the labor unions when he founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) in 1972. Along the way he has stood alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights struggles and Nelson Mandela in opposition to apartheid. Though his name is not as well known as these famous men, Lucy has carved out a legacy based on living wages, health care benefits, and job safety. And like Mandela and King's, Lucy's legacy lives on through the lives of hundreds of thousands of working families around the world every day.

To read more about Mr. Lucy, you can go here.