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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/371-6422.
Arthur J. Goldberg, President Kennedy's first secretary of
labor, has been selected for inclusion in the Labor Hall of Fame, Labor
Secretary Robert B. Reich and Friends of the Department of Labor Chairman W.J.
Usery Jr. announced today.
Goldberg, who later served as an associate justice of the
Supreme Court and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was chosen by an
impartial panel for his actions on behalf of American workers and his efforts
to promote free collective bargaining, Reich and Usery said.
He will become the 19th person to be honored in the Labor
Hall of Fame, located in the lobby of the U.S. Department of Labor's
headquarters, the Frances Perkins Building. A ceremony to unveil a Goldberg
exhibit and video presentation will be held later this year at a date to be
announced.
As secretary of labor during the early 1960's, Goldberg
moved to improve labor-management relations and to solve disputes threatening
the public interest. He created human relations commissions to help labor and
management understand each other's problems better.
Goldberg also took important steps to develop job training
programs approved by Congress to help the unemployed and to promote fair
employment practices.
Before becoming labor secretary, Goldberg was an attorney
for a number of unions and general counsel for the Congress of Industrial
Organizations(CIO). He played a leading role in the unification of the CIO and
the American Federation of Labor into the present AFL-CIO in 1955.
After the merger, Goldberg became general counsel for the
AFL-CIO and its industrial union department. He was one of the authors of the
AFL-CIO constitution and a principal architect of the AFL-CIO Code of Ethical
Practices.
Early in his career, Goldberg served as labor division
chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.
A native of Chicago, Arthur Goldberg was one of eight
children of Russian immigrant parents. His father died when Arthur was three,
and Arthur worked his way through Northwestern University and its law school.
At his graduation from law school he was honored as top student in his
class.
The Labor Hall of Fame posthumously honors Americans whose
distinctive contributions have enhanced the lives of American workers in the
past and future.
The exhibits were initiated by Friends of the Department
of Labor, a non-profit group headed by Usery, a former labor secretary, and are
supported by the department.
Among those honored are men and women from labor,
management, government and academic fields. Selections are by a panel of
experts headed by Monsignor George G. Higgins of Catholic University of America
which includes representatives of both management and labor.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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