Evelyn Kahan Dubrow died last night at the age of 95. friend of the worker

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/?p=875

Evy Dubrow: Friend of Presidents, Champion of Workers, Loved by All

Evelyn Kahan Dubrow, the daughter of impoverished immigrant factory workers from Belarus, got her first taste of political activism handing out fliers during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s in New York City’s Union Square. She would later recall that no one paid too much attention.

That was probably the last time people didn’t pay much attention to Dubrow, known to nearly everyone as Evy. She rose to become one of America’s most powerful, most respected and best-loved advocates for working people and their unions, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a friend of presidents and champion of low-wage workers and a major force in the union movement. She was, as one newspaper headline described her, the “Capitol Hill lobbyist everyone loves.”




Hill lobbyist everyone loves.”

Dubrow died last night at the age of 95.

Recalling the many years he worked with Dubrow, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:

All of us who were her friends are remembering her and sharing our own stories of her. But I believe that the best eulogy of Evy Dubrow was actually said years ago by a senator: “Evy Dubrow is the union label.” It was true then, and it will always be.

She first joined a union, the Newspaper Guild, at The Morning Call in New Jersey, and it changed her life. She served as the secretary of the Guild, assistant to the president of the New Jersey Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and as organizer and political education director of the Textile Workers in New Jersey.

But she found her true calling when the legendary David Dubinsky hired her in 1956 as the lobbyist for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), where he was president. Her very first task was to oppose a proposal that would outlaw secondary boycotts. She won the support of a young Massachusetts senator named John Kennedy, who sponsored her amendment. Her next issue was fighting for an increase in the minimum wage to $1 an hour.

It was the start of an extraordinary career. For two generations, Dubrow lobbied in Washington, D.C., for just about every good cause in public life: fighting against the return of the sweatshops and industrial homework and against free trade laws that exploit workers in this nation and around the world; and fighting for pay equity, labor law reform, family and medical leave, civil rights, universal health care and much more. She rose through the ILGWU to become an international union vice president in 1977.

On Capitol Hill, she was a star. “Everyone knows Evy,” The New York Times reported in 1987. “Senators. Representatives. Aides. Receptionists. The Capitol Police.” And the paper noted, “One person on Capitol Hill gets to share the Congressional doorkeepers’ chairs outside the House of Representatives chambers…Evelyn Dubrow and no one else.”

In presenting Dubrow with the Medal of Freedom in 1999, President Bill Clinton said:

For more than five decades, Evy Dubrow has fought to improve the lives of America’s working women and men. A tenacious and effective union activist, she has been a force for social justice and improved labor conditions by working for increases in the minimum wage, health care reform, family and medical leave, and pay equity for women. Renowned for her grace, candor, and integrity, she has earned the respect of opponents and allies alike.

Photos show luminaries such as John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and longtime House of Representatives leader Tip O’Neill towering over Dubrow, who was 4′11″, in deep conversation. In all of these photos, it’s clear Dubrow was holding her own.

Her real strength was remaining true to her mission: bringing the message of union workers to Capitol Hill. She did it better than anyone else ever did.

Everyone in the union movement and all those she touched will miss Evy Dubrow.

tags: Evy Dubrow, textile workers, House, Tip O’Neill, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson

[Virginia Dare]

1. I had the pleasure of meeting her...

she was definitely one of a kind and will be missed.

:-(