Labor & Employment Law

BAC?s Flynn, AFSCME?s Lucy Announce Retirements

By James Parks

Two major union leaders announced their retirement this week. On Monday, the Bricklayers (BAC) Executive Council elected James Boland as the union’s new president succeeding John Flynn, who retired after more than 10 years. Boland previously served as BAC’s secretary-treasurer.

Yesterday, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy announced he will retire, after serving 38 years in that post. His retirement is effective June 25. Delegates to the AFSCME convention on June 28-July 2 in Boston will choose his successor.

A member of BAC Local 3 in California, Boland began working as a bricklayer and stone and marble mason. He joined the union’s Executive Board in 1995 and was appointed secretary-treasurer in 1999. Boland appointed Executive Vice President Henry Kramer as secretary-treasurer and Trade Jurisdiction Director Tim Driscoll as executive vice president.

Boland credited Flynn, who is a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, with strengthening the union during his tenure, saying:

            Our union is stronger today because of his vision and dedication.

Lucy, a civil engineer by trade, is a former president of AFSCME Local 1675 in Contra Costa, Calif. He joined the AFSCME international staff in 1966. Before assuming the position of secretary-treasurer in 1972, he served as executive assistant to AFSCME’s late president Jerry Wurf.

Lucy also is founder and president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), one of six AFL-CIO constituency groups.

For more than three decades, Lucy has been involved in international affairs. He currently chairs the AFL-CIO Executive Council International Affairs Committee. He was one of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement that launched the successful anti-apartheid campaign in the United States in the mid 1980s. He led an AFL-CIO delegation to South Africa to monitor the first democratic election there. Lucy also serves as vice president of Public Services International (PSI), the world’s largest union federation.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).