Noel Beasley Elected President of Workers United

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May 10, 2011

Noel Beasley Elected President of Workers United, SEIU

NEW YORK - Last night, during a special meeting, the General Executive Board of Workers United, an affiliate of SEIU, elected Noel Beasley the union's new president by acclamation.  He succeeds Bruce Raynor, who resigned effective May 7.  Beasley, who has served as director of the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board and executive vice president of Workers United, has a long history with the union and a proven record of success.

"Our members in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada are facing unprecedented challenges as our countries struggle to rebound from the recession," Beasley said.  "I am honored and humbled to be elected to lead our union."

Building upon his 35 years with Workers United, serving the last 25 year as the director of Midwest operations, Beasley promises to build new strength for members by focusing on the foundation of workplace leaders and field staff and continuing the Workers United tradition of recruiting and training member leaders and staff through the union's ambitious education and mobilization program.

"This is an extremely difficult period of transition for the global trade union movement and the problems that our International Union must confront are complicated. But these problems are in many ways reflections of the hard times that now assault our members, their families and communities," Beasley said.  "We must move from defense to offense.  We must reclaim North America for working families and stop the attempts to roll back virtually every hard-fought victory of the Twentieth Century."

"If we can save jobs in the Rust Belt, we can do it everywhere," Beasley added in reference to the successful Hartmarx and Hugo Boss campaigns, which were waged in his region.

Chicago-based Hartmarx, the largest menswear manufacturing company in the nation, filed for bankruptcy protection after U.S. banks curtailed its lines of credit. The clothing maker employs 3,500 across the U.S. and Canada, with about 1,000 of its employees located in Rock Island and suburban Des Plaines, IL, where suits for President Obama are made.  The successful Workers United campaign to save the company included sit ins and demonstrations to demand that big banks restructure the company's debt to save jobs.

Hugo Boss, the last clothing manufacturer in Cleveland, planned to shut its plant and lay off 400 workers in 2010.  Hugo Boss planned to save money by shipping the jobs overseas to Turkey or Eastern Europe.  Workers United launched a massive campaign to save the plant and the jobs, enlisting the support of influential people like then-Governor Ted Strickland and actor and activist Danny Glover.  The jobs were saved and the plant operates today.

"We know how to win for working families.  I look forward to working with all of our members to continue to add to our record of victories," Beasley said.

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Workers United, SEIU is a union of 150,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada who work in the manufacturing, distribution, laundry, food service, hospitality, apparel and textile industries.