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To Recognize and Congratulate Tim Burga on being the recipient of the John T. Greene, II Labor Award upon the Occasion of the 32nd Annual Labor Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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WHEREAS, Tim began his work with the Ohio AFL-CIO as Legislative Director in 2002. During his tenure with state federation, Tim led a coalition in a successful effort to place on the ballot and pass State Issue 2 as a Constitutional Amendment to raise Ohio’s minimum wage; and
WHEREAS, prior to his work at the federation, Tim worked for the City of Marion, Ohio where he assisted in a successful effort to organize city workers to be represented by the United Steelworkers. Tim went on to become Vice President and President of Steelworkers local union 7856; and
WHEREAS, Tim was unanimously elected to the office of President, at the 2014 Ohio AFL-CIO convention a seat he has held since 2011. The Ohio AFL_CIO represents over 500,000 union workers from 40 affiliated international unions in the public, private and federal sectors; and
WHEREAS, as president, Tim oversaw the sate federations statewide campaign to place a referendum on the ballot to overturn Senate Bill 5, and the election to defeat Issue 2 to preserve collective bargaining rights for Ohio’s public employees. Tim also led the federation’s political work in 2012, which produced the highest percentage of voter contacts in the country for the cause of re-electing President Obama and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown ; and
WHEREAS, Tim Burga embodies the mission of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists to bear in the unending effort to achieve economic, political and social justice for every American; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council does hereby recognize and congratulate Tim Burga on being the 2019 John T. Green, II Labor Award recipient, on this 12th day of January 2019.