- Playing
- Labor's Honorary Lesbian
- From
- Dick Meister
Labor advocates of gay rights lost a key supporter with the recent death of San Francisco labor leader Walter Johnson. His support helped lead to the AFL-CIO's formal recognition of the major LGBT group, Pride at Work.
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Piece Description
Labor advocates of gay rights lost a key supporter with the recent death of San Francisco labor leader Walter Johnson. His support helped lead to the AFL-CIO's formal recognition of the major LGBT group, Pride at Work.
Broadcast History
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Transcript
Labor advocates of gay rights lost a major supporter with the recent death at 87 of San Francisco union leader Walter Johnson.
Johnson was everything a labor leader should be – a dedicated, unyielding supporter of working people and their unions. But more than that, he also was an unyielding supporter of all those inside and outside the labor movement who wanted – and badly needed – a decent living, or who, like so many gay Americans, were oppressed.
Johnson devoted his life to that task as head of the Department Store and Retail clerks unions in San Francisco. He later headed the San Francisco Labor Council for nearly 20 years, from 1985 until his retirement in 2004.
Johnson was a genuine humanitarian, a kind, thoughtful man who very much wanted to help people win social, political and economic justice, who seemed always ready and eager to do what needed to be done.
He was a man o...
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Intro and Outro
INTRO:Commentator Dick Meister says labor has lost a key leader.
OUTRO:Dick Meister is a longtime labor and political journalist.
