By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

    WASHINGTON (PAI)—Union leaders, speaking for workers, reacted with deep sadness and huge praise to the death on Aug. 25 of longtime labor ally Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, at 77.  Several unionists, including Communications Workers President Larry Cohen, said workers could best memorialize him by enacting his last two great causes: Universal affordable health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.

    The Massachusetts Democrat, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and first elected in 1962, was a constant champion of workers’ causes.  They ranged from raising the minimum wage to immigration reform to workers’ rights to job safety and health to equal rights for women and minorities on the job, and much more.  Health care took most of his remaining legislative time in the last year-plus, when he was battling brain cancer, said his closest Senate friend, Christopher Dodd.

    “I’ve lost a great, great pal, and the country lost an incredible advocate.  The people who didn’t have a lawyer to stand up for them, and didn’t have a lobbyist, had Ted Kennedy,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said.

And Kennedy was renowned as someone who knew the legislative levers so well and was so effective at reaching across party lines and building coalitions that he could accomplish things for workers even in the face of strong GOP opposition.  Dodd, who worked with him for 30 years, said Kennedy knew when to push, what to do, and how to stick with goals – even in all-night bargaining at the committee.

Even two weeks ago, as Kennedy was battling the cancer that finally killed him, “he knew what was going on, down to the finest details” on health care, Dodd said.  And Kennedy, in an early-morning phone call to Dodd, “whooped and cheered” when the committee became the first to approve comprehensive health care reform.  Excerpts of the union leaders’ statements follow:

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney: “He was our senator -- a senator for working people, for poor people, for the old and the vulnerable.  For all those who needed a champion, he was our champion.  He personified a sense of aspiration that has become America's aspiration -- to make things better, to make them more fair, to make our nation more compassionate and hopeful, to make life work for working men and women. He has left an enormous footprint on America.  

“For nearly a half century, Ted Kennedy was the chief standard-bearer for working families in the United States Senate…He championed the cause of working people and labor out of deep affection -- and the affection was mutual.  He was loved for his roaring passion, his decency, and his generosity.  Few can claim the adoration he received not only as the senator who more than any other defined America's vision for civil rights, workers' rights, health care, education, disability rights and so much more, but also as "Teddy," the man who remembered birthdays, celebrated family and shared chuckles.  
              
“It is because of his 47 years of service, hard work and faith that we will pass affordable, quality health care this year -- and go on to restore the freedom of every working person to organize and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

    Change To Win Chair Anna Burger:  “Sen. Kennedy was a lifelong advocate for the values and ideals of the American Dream.  He was a stalwart – lion of the Senate – giving a voice and hope to all working families.  He led the fights that have the biggest impact on providing greater economic security and opportunity for all: From giving workers the right to have a voice at work, to raising the minimum wage and worker safety standards, to creating comprehensive immigration reform….The most fitting tribute to honoring the life and legacy of this great statesman is for Congress to pass quality affordable health care for all this year.”

Communications Workers President Larry Cohen: "Sen. Kennedy has a special place in the hearts of CWA members.  We met the day before President Obama's inauguration and he said he would complete two goals -- passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.  Paraphrasing his own words, that dream will go on, and we will do so in his name."
                        
“Every major advance, every step forward for working families came about because of his efforts. Medicare and Medicaid, family and medical leave, workers rights, retirement security, equal rights and fair treatment for women, civil rights for people of color, the list goes on and on….We will extend that legacy when we achieve one of Kennedy's greatest passions, health care for all.”

UFCW President Joe Hansen: “Sen. Kennedy was an unwavering champion for workers across the country.  His passion, his vision and his devotion to the issues that matter ensured that working men and women had a voice in the halls of Congress. His commitment, his courage and his conviction brought dignity and opportunity to working families, to minorities and to recent immigrants. Time and time again, decade after decade, he stood…with us in the fight for equity and equality and justice.
      
“There will never be another Sen. Ted Kennedy, but as he so eloquently and passionately said at the Democratic National Convention in 1980, ‘The hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.’ It is now our mission to ensure the work Kennedy dedicated his life to goes on and the dream he fought so hard for never dies -- The dream of health care for every American, of a nation that upholds its rich and vibrant immigrant heritage, and where we embrace our diversity and put aside our differences in the name of building a more perfect union….Let us redouble our efforts in the causes that he cared so much about. That is how we pay tribute to this amazing man.”

Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger: Sen. Kennedy “remained a champion of this union and workers across America even in his last weeks before his death.  Kennedy was known universally as a passionate liberal.  He made no apologies for his positions and always respected the strongly held views of others. And because of his willingness to listen, he was one of the few in…Congress who could effectively reach across party lines to get things done….He was a friend and a reliable and effective advocate for Fire Fighters and a leader in standing with American families and protecting individual rights.

Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando: ““Throughout his Senate career, Sen. Kennedy  was at the forefront in working with our union on many of the critical issues important not only to postal employees, but to the U.S. Postal Service itself.  These included advancing budgetary legislation that facilitated an efficient, universal postal system to serve all Americans, and also ensuring postal employees received wages, benefits and a workplace environment that they deserved.”  was at the forefront in working with our union on many of the critical issues important not only to postal

   Service Employees President Andy Stern: “Sen. Kennedy’s America is our America.  It is the America of the nurse in Pittsburgh, the janitor in Miami, and the child care provider in Maine. It is the America SEIU members continue to fight for. And Kennedy stood beside us in that fight longer than anyone else…He stood with workers fighting for a voice on the job by championing the Employee Free Choice Act. And until his final days he stood with SEIU healthcare workers and other workers to win access to affordable healthcare for all Americans….We stand closer now than ever before to achieving what Kennedy called the cause of his life.  Let us continue his cause.  Let us take action this year to pass healthcare reform.  And let us continue to build Kennedy’s vision of America.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten: “Kennedy was sometimes nicknamed ‘The senator from AFT.’  He earned that playful moniker by virtue of our substantive and long-lasting partnership. Several years ago, we made it official by bestowing upon him an honorary lifetime membership in the AFT.
       
  “Ted Kennedy was an incomparably passionate, persuasive and persistent advocate. The causes he championed were some of the most urgent of our time — extending healthcare to those who lacked access, raising the minimum wage to lift hard-working people out of poverty, and pursuing the promise of public education and the labor movement as America ’s great equalizers.

  President Obama called Kennedy “the greatest senator of our time.”  Other comments included reflections by Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., a former UNITE shop steward, NLRB Chairman Wilma Liebman, and neighboring Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.:

  NLRB Chairman Wilma Liebman: “Sen. Kennedy was a giant.   His passing is a huge loss to the Nation.  He was a powerful champion for working people and the laws that protect them.  The National Labor Relations Board has certainly lost a great friend and a skillful advocate.  His absence in the debates on health care reform and labor law reform will be deeply felt.  Speaking personally, I was greatly honored when Kennedy presided at the installation ceremony for my third term as a member of the board.  His commitment to public service, and the passion with which he pursued it, have been an inspiration to me and so many others.”
 
Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill.:  “Sen. Ted Kennedy was one of the greatest men I ever knew.  One of my first political experiences was as a volunteer on his 1980 presidential campaign.  Kennedy grew up with every privilege a person could have, yet he spent his entire career fighting for the most vulnerable among us.  He was a champion of civil rights for women, racial minorities, gays and lesbians, and all those who faced undue discrimination.  He used his powerful role to craft legislation that extended the American Dream to ordinary families through better jobs, schools, and health care.  And he was the single best friend that organized labor and America’s working men and women ever had.   There is no way to fully repay Kennedy for his historic contributions to our nation.  But we can start by passing comprehensive health care reform this fall, an issue he called, ‘The cause of my life.’”

Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.): “Ted Kennedy devoted his lifetime to protecting those most in need, and tens of millions of Americans have been the beneficiaries. His absence from the Senate leaves an enormous void.”

Kennedy will be buried near his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., at Arlington National Cemetery.