(The AFL-CIO issued the following press release on January 10.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The AFL-CIO announced today that Karen Ackerman will be the new director for the AFL-CIO Political Department. Ackerman will move into the director position after having served at the AFL-CIO as deputy director since 1997.
In her new role, Ackerman will lead the AFL-CIO in its effort to advance the labor movement’s top political priorities: focusing attention to the issues facing working families, increasing union member participation in politics, and building a pro-working family majority in governments at all levels.
“Karen has invaluable experience from her many years as a union organizer and as a senior advisor to me on politics,” stated AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. “She understands the issues working families care about, she knows the union movement and she has the talents to strengthen grassroots political activism.”
The core of the AFL-CIO political program is union members communicating directly with other union members on the issues affecting their lives and the importance of political activism to achieve gains on those issues. The program has yielded tremendous success, increasing union household share of overall turnout in presidential elections by 30 percent from 1992 to 2000.
In her 30 years in the labor movement, Ackerman has worked for the United Auto Workers and the Communications Workers of America. She also served as the political director for the New York State Public Employees Federation, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union. After managing Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s first campaign, Ackerman moved to Washington, D.C. as her chief of staff. Ackerman left that position in 1996 to join the AFL-CIO Political Department.