Honoring two award recipients for their leadership and service

On Friday afternoon at its convention in Washington, D.C., the AFT honored a labor movement trailblazer and a veteran educator for their decades of service and extraordinary contributions to justice, advocacy and public service. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders, the first African American to lead the union, received the AFT's Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award, while veteran educator Martha Strever was honored with the AFT Lifetime Achievement Award for an unprecedented 65-year career in the classroom.

"Bayard Rustin knew this: that the fight for civil rights and the fight for workers' rights are one fight," said AFT President Weingarten before presenting Saunders with his award. Rustin "marched with sanitation workers in Memphis. He built coalitions across race, class, faith-because dignity on the job is civil rights, and civil rights are economic security. And no one carries that forward more fully today" than Lee Saunders, Weingarten said.

For Saunders, the recognition represents decades of fighting for workers, civil rights and economic justice. Raised in a union household in Cleveland, he began his career with AFSCME in 1978 as a labor economist and steadily rose through the organization's ranks; he was elected to the union's highest office in 2012.

Saunders is preparing to retire, "but what he's built doesn't retire with him: Every nurse, every correction officer, every sanitation worker, every childcare provider with more power on the job" has that power because of the organizing and building Saunders did at AFSCME, Weingarten said.

Saunders took a moment to thank Weingarten and the entire AFT family and expressed pride in receiving an award bearing Rustin's name. "There aren't people in American history who've done more to advance the values that all of us share in this room," said Saunders. "He understood that there's not just an intersection between labor rights and civil rights-it's one road, and we walk that same road together."

Strever's impact has unfolded in a very different setting, but with the same commitment to service. Jaime Ciffone, the executive vice president of New York State United Teachers, introduced Strever, noting that Strever is the longest-serving in-service member of NYSUT.

"When people ask if she's finally going to retire, she simply says, 'I love the students!' After 65 years in the classroom, that is still her reason," said Ciffone. But Strever hasn't just been an extraordinary math teacher. She helped found the Red Hook Faculty Association in 1973 and served on its very first executive board.

In accepting the award, Strever expressed gratitude to the AFT and her colleagues at NYSUT and reflected on her long career. "There are so many fantastic teachers in front of me right now. … How can I be the person standing in front of you being honored like this? … Thinking of when I started teaching, would I ever think of being here today? I thank every one of you."

[Adrienne Coles and Sharone Carmona/Photo credit: Pamela Wolfe]