OTHER NOTEWORTHY SOLDIERS OF THE LABOR BATTLE

AFGE Local 704
77 W. Jackson Blvd. Rm. 409
Chicago, Illinois 60604-3511
Ph:(312) 886-3575 Fax:(312) 886-3582 http://www.afgelocal704.org
...Serving U.S. EPA Region 5 Bargaining Unit Employees

Take a moment to remember instrumental union organizers, members, officers, and sympathizers who have passed on. Remember those who lost their lives in the fight for labor rights or who spent their lives fighting and working tirelessly for them. Read below about John N. Sturdivant.

AFGE LOSES NATIONAL PRESIDENT JOHN N. STURDIVANT

WASHINGTON, D.C., Federal and D.C. government employees are grieving today at the passing of John N.Sturdivant, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), who died last night at Fairfax Hospital. His lifelong mission was to improve government services while ensuring that all government workers were treated fairly and with dignity,

Sturdivant's voice echoed beyond the halls of government throughout the entire labor movement, As a national AFL-CIO vice president and prominent member of the Democratic National Committee, he lived the values he held dear-working people should lead the politicians, and not the other way around.

. Sturdivant this month received the "Spirit of Democracy" award from the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation and was honored at a reception in Washington, D.C. He was most proud of the lead role he played in successfully pushing for Hatch Act reform, which gave government employees greater political freedom.

Diagnosed with leukemia in December of 1996, Sturdivant had undergone extensive chemotherapy over the last year. Always a fighter, the 59-year-old Sturdivant overwhelmingly won reelection at the union's August 1997 convention to a fourth term.

Sturdivant led the union through two tumultuous government shutdowns in late 1995, which he termed "a defining moment for our union." While hundreds of thousands of government employees were locked out of their jobs or forced to work without pay, Sturdivant stood strong: he helped move an intractable Congress, returned federal employees to their jobs with the guarantee of back pay, and enlisted the support of the American people in the fight for their government. As he liked to say, AFGE was able to show the American people "that we are on their side."

As a key member of the National Partnership Council, Sturdivant was instrumental in building labor-management partnerships in the effort to reinvent government. Vice President Al Gore, who worked closely with Sturdivant, once characterized the union leader as a hero of the reinvention process,

Gore took the time for a lengthy visit with Sturdivant in August at Fairfax Hospital while he was undergoing his last round of chemotherapy. During that visit Sturdivant remarked to Gore, "Only in America could a poor black kid end up with the Vice President of the United States visiting him at the hospital."

President Bill Clinton worked closely with Sturdivant during the Oklahoma City tragedy. The two men flew together to Oklahoma City on Air Force One for the memorial service. This is a clear indication of how the President felt about John N. Sturdivant and AFGE.

An 'AFGE Activist for more than thirty years, Sturdivant cherished the union and its members as family. He rose through the leadership ranks of Local 1754 in Winchester, Va., serving as Local president from 1968 to 1976- Since his early days, Sturdivant has focused on the vital role organizing plays in building a successful union. In 1976, he accepted a staff position with the AFGE National Office in Washington, D, C. Prior to his 1982 election as Executive Vice President he served as director of organization and administrative assistant to his two immediate predecessors, In 1988, he was the first black elected to head a major AFL-CIO union representing government employees.

Born in Philadelphia on June 30, 1938, Sturdivant was raised in Bridgeport. Conn. In 1956, he enlisted in the Air Force where he was an electronics technician until 1960. He began his civilian career in 1961 as an employee of the United States Army interagency Communications Agency in Winchester, Va.

He is survived by his daughter, Michelle; his mother, Ethiel Jessie; his brothers, Robert and his wife Bernadine, and William R. Jessie, Jr.; his sister, Lillian Seawright and her husband Dover; and his close friend Peggy Potter who Saw him through this last year.

In accordance with the union 's National Constitution, National Secretary-Treasurer Bobby L, Harnage will step in to fill the three-year term left vacant. The union's National Executive Council will determine who will succeed as Secretary-Treasurer until the union's next convention in the year 2000.