NCL to honor AFL-CIO’s Trumka, Jobs with Justice’s Granich with annual awards – National Consumers League

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October 6, 2014

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC— The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, will honor Richard L. Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, with its highest honor, the Trumpeter Award, on Wednesday, October 8, in Washington, DC. The event will bring together a diverse group of representatives from nonprofit organizations, labor unions, consumer organizations, and industry to celebrate a busy year of victories for consumer and worker advocates. Lara Granich, Director of Missouri Jobs with Justice, will receive this year’s Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award.

“The Trumpeter Award is NCL’s highest honor, given to leaders who have dedicated their lives to improving the rights of consumers and workers. President Trumka fully embodies these values, as his career-long commitment to America’s families have had a measurable impact on conditions for our workforce,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “We are proud of NCL’s historical and modern-day ties to the labor community and look forward to working together to increase workplace protections for all Americans.”

Since 2009, Trumka has been president of AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in America. Throughout his career as a labor leader, first with the United Mine Workers of America, and since 1995 with AFL-CIO, Trumka has dedicated himself to fighting for fair and honest labor practices for American workers. He created investment programs for the labor movement, urged the creation of, and now chairs, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, and was instrumental in developing tactics to rally the support of international labor on behalf of U.S. workers struggling for workplace justice against multinational conglomerates.

The first recipient of the Trumpeter Award, in 1973, was Senator Ted Kennedy. Previous honorees include Labor Secretaries Hilda Solis, Robert Reich, and Alexis Herman, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Senators Carl Levin and Paul Wellstone, Delores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, and many others. Last year Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner at the Federal Communication Commission, received the honor.

Lara Granich, Director of Missouri Jobs with Justice will receive this year’s Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award, named for NCL’s early leader and awarded to grassroots consumer advocates. In her time at Missouri Jobs with Justice, Granich has helped lead successful campaigns to increase the minimum wage, defend affirmative action, and support workers organizing unions and bargaining for better lives at work. She also co-chairs the Jobs with Justice National Board.

The event will feature a reception, dinner, and speaking appearances by NCL leadership and the honorees, as well as:

  • Cecil E. Roberts, International President, Untied Mine Workers of America
  • Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Commissioner, Federal trade Commission
  • Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs with Justice

Event details
What: National Consumers League’s 2014 Trumpeter Awards 

When: Wednesday, October 8, 2014
7 p.m. Dinner and Presentation of Awards

Where: Grand Hyatt Washington,1000 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Questions or to RSVP: Call National Consumers League, (202) 835-3323

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.