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Gerald McEntee
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Gerald W. McEntee is the International President of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the most aggressive and politically active organizing unions in the AFL-CIO. Since 2006, 145,000 women and men have changed their lives by forming a union with AFSCME. McEntee was first elected AFSCME President in 1981 and was re-elected in July 2008 to another four-year term.

As a Vice President of the AFL-CIO and chair of the Political Education Committee, McEntee is a key leader of the labor movement and its political efforts. Under McEntee’s leadership, the federation created its highly successful and much imitated voter education and mobilization program, which increased the number of union household voters to a record 26 percent of the electorate in 2006.

McEntee has long been a leader in the fight to reform the nation’s health care system. He chairs the AFL-CIO’s Health Care Committee and is a co-chair of Health Care for America NOW!, a national grassroots coalition that has launched a $40 million campaign to guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

McEntee is a co-founder and chairman of the board of the Economic Policy Institute, the preeminent voice for working Americans on the economy. He led the successful fight to stop President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, was an outspoken proponent for increasing the federal minimum wage, and is one of the nation’s leading advocates for America’s vital public services.

For his efforts to improve the lives of working families, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights presented McEntee with its prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Award in 2004.

Before assuming the presidency of AFSCME, McEntee began his distinguished career as a labor leader in Pennsylvania in 1958. He led the drive to unionize more than 75,000 Pennsylvania public service employees, which at that time was the largest union mobilization in history. He was elected Executive Director at the founding convention of AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania in 1973 and an International Vice President of AFSCME in 1974.

McEntee holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from LaSalle University in Philadelphia. A native of Philadelphia, McEntee and his wife Barbara live in Washington, DC.

Blog Entries by Gerald McEntee

Mitt Romney and the 1%

Posted January 27, 2012 | 1/27/12

Mitt Romney has released some information on his income taxes over the past two years. Turns out he's paid less than 14 percent on more than $40 million in income. He makes more in one day than most American makes all year, yet he pays a tax rate...

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Gagging Workers Is Un-American

Posted February 16, 2011 | 2/16/11

As the world watched the people of Egypt take to the streets in an effort to exercise their rights and have their voices heard, here at home in the USA, plans are being put into place to silence workers, lower their wages, cut their benefits and increase the likelihood that...

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Stop the Lies

Posted December 14, 2010 | 12/14/10

Near the end of the now-classic film Chinatown, set in Los Angeles during the 1930s, working-stiff private detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) confronts the greedy land developer Noah Cross (John Huston) about his sinister, murderous behavior:

Gittes: I just wanna know what you're worth. More than 10...

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Pre-Thanksgiving GOP Vote: Disgusting

Posted November 23, 2010 | 11/23/10

The U.S. Commerce Department reports today that corporate profits are at a record high, at a time when corporations are sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash reserves. At the same time, 15 million Americans are still looking for work.

Two years after the financial collapse...

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Voters Want a Recovery That Works for Everyone

Posted November 3, 2010 | 11/3/10

Angry voters sent a clear message on Tuesday: Much, much more must be done to put America back to work. But voters rejected right-wing and Tea Party candidates who argued that government should do nothing to improve the economy or protect working families during the worst economic crisis since the...

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What's at Stake Tuesday

Posted October 29, 2010 | 10/29/10

The conventional wisdom in Washington right now is that the Republicans are about to take back the House, and possibly the Senate. That would be awful news for every American who believes that government should protect the interests of American working families rather than international corporate interests. And it is...

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The GOP's Bizarre and Cynical "Pledge to America"

Posted September 24, 2010 | 9/24/10

One can only marvel at the extreme cynicism evident in the Republican Party's bizarre 21-page "Pledge to America." The document is only the tip of the iceberg and masks the real agenda of Republican leaders. That agenda remains what it has been for the past generation: transferring more of the...

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Call Your Senators Today to Protect a Million Jobs

Posted August 2, 2010 | 8/2/10

Earlier this year, Democrats in the Senate tried three times to pass legislation that would help states deal with growing Medicaid rolls, the joint federal-state health care program for the poor. Each effort has failed in the face of united Republican obstructionism. Earlier this month, the Washington Post...

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More Jobs = Less Debt

Posted June 23, 2010 | 6/23/10

In the worst economy since the Great Depression, far too many Americans are out of work. Despite the rising fears of more job losses, the Senate is refusing to do what is necessary to protect and create jobs. On Thursday, the Senate failed to break a Republican filibuster of the...

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The Assault on Public Employees

Posted May 24, 2010 | 5/24/10

For more than a generation, America's working families have been under a constant assault from the CEO's and extraordinarily wealthy members of our society. While median incomes in the U.S. have stagnated since the mid-1970's, incomes for those in the top five percent have more than doubled. Since the beginning...

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It's Time to Hold Wall Street Accountable

Posted May 14, 2010 | 5/14/10

Almost two years have passed since the taxpayers of America gave the titans of Wall Street more than $700 billion to keep the world's economic system from plunging into another world-wide Great Depression. Yet, the big banks, the Wall Street investment houses, the hedge funds and the CEOs...

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Cows on the Track

Posted March 24, 2010 | 3/24/10

Michael Steele, the hapless chairman of the Republican National Committee, was asked a while back by Fox News how he would stop health care reform. "I will be the cow on the track," he answered. Steele believed that President Obama's historic effort to end the ongoing abuses of the insurance...

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This Is the Week

Posted March 16, 2010 | 3/16/10

This is the week we've been waiting for.

This is the week when Democrats in Congress can prove that it is still possible for our political institutions to stand with the American people in a time of crisis.

This is the week when we will tell...

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Help for Haiti

Posted January 15, 2010 | 1/15/10

As news traveled around the world that a major earthquake had struck Haiti, so many of us bowed our heads in sorrow. There is no appropriate way to measure its impact on that already-impoverished country. We can only watch in horror as emergency teams pull bodies from destroyed buildings and...

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Finish Reform Right - Don't Tax Health Benefits

Posted January 8, 2010 | 1/8/10

Working families are struggling with the high cost of health care, yet the health care bill passed by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve would tax their health care benefits. That's a terrible mistake. Unfortunately, even some progressive leaders, like my friend Sen. John Kerry, have been taken in by...

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Standing for Meaningful Health Reform

Posted September 15, 2009 | 9/15/09

The Senate Finance Committee is getting ready to debate a health care bill that does not come close to meeting the needs of America's working families. Nor does it meet the standards President Obama laid out in his address last week to Congress. There is no employer mandate, no public...

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A Message for Labor Day

Posted September 4, 2009 | 9/4/09

On Labor Day 2009, we honor the tremendous contributions and sacrifices of workers who built this great nation. We must never forget that workers organized, marched, went on strike, and even gave their lives in the struggles that resulted in the 40-hour workweek, safe working conditions, secure retirement benefits and...

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The Death of a Friend

Posted August 27, 2009 | 8/27/09

In nearly 47 years spent serving the American people, Ted Kennedy never stepped away from a fight, never stopped being a champion of the middle class, never ceased being a friend to labor and working families. From civil rights to health care, right until the end, he was our strongest...

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Countering the Lies about Health Care Reform

Posted August 12, 2009 | 8/12/09

All across the country, the opponents of health care reform are spreading misinformation about President Barack Obama's proposals to improve health care coverage for all Americans. We shouldn't be surprised about that. The insurance companies, the right-wing radio hosts, the K-Street lobbyists and the Republican leadership who are spreading...

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AFSCME Urges Say-on-Pay for Shareholders

Posted July 31, 2009 | 7/31/09

AFSCME filed the first shareholder "say-on-pay" proposals in 2005. In the four years since then, we've put together a broad coalition of investors fighting to get shareholders a voice on executive compensation. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected later today to vote on "say-on-pay" legislation crafted by Chairman Barney...

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