WHEREAS:
In 1975, Lee Saunders began working at the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services and joined the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA), after having grown up in a union household in Cleveland. His father was a bus driver and a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union. His mother was a community organizer and, after raising two sons, returned to college and became a community college professor and a member of the American Association of University Professors; and
WHEREAS:
In 1978, he began his career with AFSCME, moving to Washington, D.C., to serve as a labor economist in the Research & Collective Bargaining Services Department (RCBS). He quickly rose through the ranks, negotiating major contracts, including OCSEA’s first contract with the state of Ohio as a leader on the bargaining team. He built powerful coalitions, mobilized members and supported affiliate campaigns as assistant director of RCBS, director of Community Action and deputy director of Organizing and Field Services. Then, as executive assistant to the president of AFSCME, he led one of the most effective political and legislative operations in the history of the American labor movement; and
WHEREAS:
Saunders served as administrator for AFSCME District Council 37, New York City’s largest public employee union, for almost four years, including through the dark, challenging days of 9/11. As administrator, he worked together with DC 37 members and leaders to successfully restore the fiscal health, integrity and good name of the council and its 56 affiliated local unions; and
WHEREAS:
In July 2010, Saunders was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the International Union at the 39th International Convention. In June 2012, he was elected President of AFSCME at the 40th International Convention, becoming the first African American to lead the International Union. In his closing remarks to the delegates of that convention, he foresaw the challenges ahead and laid out the importance of solidarity to AFSCME’s success, something that would be a hallmark of his presidency, telling delegates, “The path ahead is difficult. But I have no doubt, no doubt at all that if we put aside what divides us and focus on what unites us and set our hearts on solidarity, we can achieve what seems to be impossible. Let us go forth, Sisters and Brothers, in solidarity with one mission, with one goal, to build AFSCME into the strongest force it can possibly be for our members and for our nation;” and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders has repeatedly been tested by fire and through his visionary leadership and tenacity has made sure AFSCME and its members have come out stronger each time we have been challenged; and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders inspired and emboldened AFSCME and its members not just to survive but to thrive in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 decision. Even before the Court handed down that shameful decision overturning decades-old precedent, he had launched AFSCME Strong, an unprecedented, union-wide effort that continues today, building power through internal and external organizing and recognizing the individual contributions AFSCME members make to serving and strengthening their communities. His foresight and preparation allowed him to declare defiantly at AFSCME’s 43rd International Convention — just 19 days after the Janus decision — “They’ll try to silence our voice on the job and snatch away our seat at the table. They’ll try to knock us down. But we will rise up again and again and again and again. And we will say this. I will never quit my union. I will never quit my union;” and
WHEREAS:
Under President Saunders’ leadership, AFSCME has risen up again and again. Today, even in the face of so many attacks by politicians, billionaires and ideologues against public service workers and their unions, AFSCME is growing. It also is continuing to expand public sector workers’ right to join a union and bargain collectively, like in Virginia. Colorado and Nevada by winning new laws through strategic political and legislative advocacy campaigns; and
WHEREAS:
As an essential part of these efforts, President Saunders forged a positive, productive partnership with other public service unions, especially the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and Service Employees International Union; and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders led AFSCME through the first global pandemic in a century, successfully fighting for protections for frontline workers and, through AFSCME’s Fund the Frontlines campaign, securing $350 billion in flexible federal aid that ensured states and local governments had the resources needed to fund public services, pay public service workers and recover quickly from the pandemic economic downturn. To ensure that governments returned to adequate staffing levels, he then led the Staff the Front Lines campaign that crisscrossed the nation, calling attention to the value of public services and the opportunity that public service work offers to working people; and
WHEREAS:
Through the AFSCME Get Organized, or GO Campaign, President Saunders has established AFSCME as the labor movement’s number-one fighter against the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency’s unprecedented and illegal attacks on public services and public service workers and Congress and President Trump’s ongoing efforts to give huge tax cuts to billionaires and corporations while gutting funding for the benefits, protections and programs that serve everyday people and for the public service workers who operate those programs; and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders spearheaded the I AM 2018 campaign and movement to honor and commemorate the bravery, sacrifice and success of the 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers who risked everything by going on strike in 1968 to gain recognition for their union and their humanity; and to honor the important role Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played in that strike and his and the civil rights movement’s important connections to the labor movement. Always looking forward, President Saunders also emphasized that I AM 2018 was “not just to honor our history but to seize the future,” “our work, Dr. King’s work, isn’t done,” and I AM 2018 was a call to action to continue advancing civil, labor and human rights; and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders has served as a vice president of the AFL-CIO Executive Council and chaired its Political Committee. As the committee’s chair, he led the AFL-CIO in adopting AFSCME’s innovative hybrid campaigns in its political work, focusing those efforts on having one-on-one, issue-based conversations with current and potential union members at the workplace and their homes. His commitment to involving working people in the political life of our nation, states and communities has reflected the fact that, as voting rights activist and political leader Stacey Abrams has said about him, “Lee Saunders has always understood that America’s democracy relies on the people who keep our country running;” and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders has served working people in numerous roles beyond AFSCME, including as president of Working America, an NAACP board member and treasurer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and
WHEREAS:
President Saunders has been an AFSCME member for 50 years and our International President for the past 14 years. He has established AFSCME as a powerhouse for the voice and aspirations of America’s public service workers in the 21st century. He is ending his historic career as International President at AFSCME’s 47th International Convention and on the 90th anniversary of our union.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME honors and salutes the leadership, tenacity, strength, commitment and innovativeness that Lee Saunders personified every day during his decades of work. We are proud of his record of service to our union, our families and our nation. We will be inspired by the example he set every day as a fighter for working people, a unifying force within AFSCME and the entire labor movement and an innovator in pursuit of stronger unions and better lives for all Americans. We will always remember him. We will invite him as an honored guest to all future AFSCME International conventions; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That the delegates to AFSCME’s 47th International Convention bestow upon Lee Saunders the title of President Emeritus; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That President Saunders’ legacy will be continued in future generations through the creation of the Lee Saunders Endowed Scholarship Fund and a commitment of $50,000 to fund the endowment; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That the AFSCME International headquarters first floor boardroom in Washington, D.C., will be named the Lee Saunders International Executive Board Room, and appropriate steps will be taken to commemorate his long record of service and leadership.
SUBMITTED BY:
International Executive Board