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Joseph Lane Kirkland
Born	March 12, 1922(1922-03-12) Camden, South Carolina
Died	August 14, 1999 (aged 77) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Labor leader
Political party	Democratic

Joseph Lane Kirkland (March 12, 1922 – August 14, 1999) was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.

Biography

Kirkland was born in Camden, South Carolina and rose over his career to head the 16-million-member American labor movement.^[1]

In 1941, Kirkland entered the United States Merchant Marine Academy, graduated 1942, and became an officer on U.S. merchant ships during World War II. After the war, he worked in the Research Department of the AFL. He received a B.S. degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Kirkland married Edith Draper Hollyday in June 1944, with whom he had five daughters. A year after their divorce in 1972, he married the Czech-born Irena Neumann (1925 - 2007).^[2]

From 1979 to 1995 Kirkland was president of the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). During his tenure, union membership in the United States declined precipitously. The unions suffered some of their most serious defeats, including the 1981 air traffic controllers's strike and the 1985 Hormel meat packers' strike. On the international front, Kirkland's support of the Solidarity movement in Poland contributed to the decline of communism (he was awarded posthumously with the highest Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle).^[3]

His best remembered quotation is:

If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.

On November 13, 1989, Kirkland was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bush

In 1994, Kirkland was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.

Lane Kirkland died in Washington, D.C., aged 77, from complications of cancer.

Sources

• The American Presidency Project
• Lane Kirkland (1922 - 1999) AFL-CIO history page.

External links

Organized Labour portal

Nautical portal

• [American Center for International Labor Solidarity] the foreign arm of the AFL-CIO from 1977.
• Lane Kirkland: The AFL-CIO's last cold warrior by Jim Smith
• Freedom's Labors: Lane Kirkland worked for more than his union by Fred Siegel. Wall Street Journal. OpinionJournal.com. Tuesday, March 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST. Accessed April 3, 2005.

References

From Wikiquote

Portrait

Joseph Lane Kirkland (March 12, 1922 – August 14, 1999) was a US labor union leader who served as president of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.

Sourced

• The skills and productivity of American Workers, not to mention the taxes they pay, are the greatest economic resource our country has.
  • Labor Hall of Fame[1]

Unsourced

• If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.
• To hear the Japanese plead for free trade is like hearing the word love on the lips of a harlot.
• The usefulness of a meeting rises with the square of the number of people present.
• My pappy told me never to bet my bladder against a brewery or get into an argument with people who buy ink by the barrel.
• Don't believe that winning is really everything. It's more important to stand for something. If you don't stand for something, what do you win?
• The only way to convert the heathen is to travel into the jungle.
• We must be part of the general staff at the inception, rather than the ambulance drivers at the bitter end.
• Don't believe that winning is really everything. It's more important to stand for something. If you don't stand for something, what do you win?

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Lane Kirkland