Bios
JORGE RAMIREZ, President
Jorge Ramirez was elected President of the Chicago Federation of Labor in 2010. He previously served as Secretary-Treasurer. Prior to joining the CFL in 2006, Ramirez was elected Vice President and served as Executive Director of Local 1546 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, representing nearly 30,000 members in Chicago and throughout Illinois.
Since 2008, Ramirez has served on the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board of Directors as Vice-Chairman. He currently serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Labor Advisory Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Advisory Council on Agriculture, Small Business and Labor, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau Board of Directors, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) Advisory Council and is co-chairman of the City of Chicago Labor Management Cooperative Committee (LMCC). He serves as co-chairman of the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council and member of the National Manufacturing Renaissance Campaign design team, and a Rector of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Ramirez also serves on the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls Board of Regents, the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Board of Directors, the ARISE Chicago Board of Directors, the Chicago Jobs with Justice Executive Board, and a number of other boards and commissions.
Ramirez received a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and graduated as a student scholarship athlete from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1993 with a double major in marketing and computer information systems and a four-year letterman in football.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Ramirez attended St. Anthony High School Seminary in San Antonio, Texas.
Ramirez and his wife, Catrina, have four sons, Marino, John Paul, Antonio and Santino.
ROBERT G. REITER, JR., Secretary-Treasurer
Robert G. Reiter, Jr. was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor in 2010. He is a third-generation member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 and previously served as an Organizer, Business Representative and Field Attorney responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements for public-sector members in the Municipalities Department. IUOE Local 150 represents approximately 23,000 heavy equipment operators in the construction industry throughout Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, with the majority here in Illinois.
Prior to working for the Municipalities Department at Local 150, Reiter worked for the Indiana Illinois Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting, a labor-management cooperation committee. While at the IIIFFC, Reiter concentrated on issues such as prevailing wage, employee misclassification and responsible bidding at both the grassroots and legislative levels. Reiter currently serves on the Chicago Jobs with Justice Executive Committee, Citizen Action/Illinois Policy Council, the Metropolitan Planning Council's Resource Board and is Treasurer of the Cook County Workforce Investment Board.
Reiter earned his law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law where he was president of the Labor & Employment Law Society and student editor of the Illinois Public Sector Report. Prior to law school he attended Eastern Illinois University where he received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
Reiter and his wife, Diana, have a daughter, Caitlin.
