Labor On The Move: Trumka Announces Staff Picks

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (r) made his first public announcement of new top staff appointments yesterday. “My new appointees reflect the commitments I have made to strengthen and broaden the AFL-CIO at this pivotal time for working women and men,” said Trumka, in announcing the appointments. “We will deepen our policy work, emphasize diversity, ramp up our grassroots action, reach out beyond our base, coordinate our work in ways that are both strategic and efficient and hold ourselves to budget standards that are rigorous and transparent.  The bottom line for all our work is improving the lives of working families.” Jonathan Hiatt will serve as Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to President Trumka.  Hiatt has served the AFL-CIO as General Counsel since 1995. Paul Lemmon will serve as Assistant to the President and National Program Operations Manager. Lemmon, who will oversee integration of programs and field implementation, has served as executive assistant to then-secretary treasurer Trumka and as field director in the political department.  A third generation United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) coal miner, he was president of his local union, secretary treasurer of UMWA District 5 in western Pennsylvania and deputy director of organizing for the Mineworkers for the northeast U.S. and Canada. Thea Lee will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff – Lee, an economist, has been at the AFL-CIO for 12 years, first as chief international economist and for the last four years as policy director.  She worked as an international economist at the Economic Policy Institute and as an editor at Dollars & Sense magazine.  She testifies frequently before Congress on behalf of the AFL-CIO and serves on several government advisory committees. Richard Barchiesi will serve as Special Assistant to the President.  Barchiesi worked with President Trumka at the UMWA from 1982-95 and at the AFL-CIO as a field representative from 1996 to 2007.  After 2007, he was an assistant to then-secretary treasurer Trumka. Trumka also announced: Ana Avendano as Assistant to the President for Immigration and Community Action – Avendano has served as an associate general counsel at the AFL-CIO since 2004, focusing on immigrant workers' rights and international migration.  She was one of the architects of the federation's historic partnership with worker centers. Kirk Brungard as Executive Assistant to Secretary Treasurer Shuler – Brungard has served since 2006 as director of construction organizing at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).  The son of a 50-year rank-and-file IBEW member, he spent over 15 years working as an electrician in Los Angeles before joining his local union staff in 1998, where he served as an organizer and compliance officer.  He joined the IBEW International staff in January of 2005. Lynn Rhinehart as General Counsel – Rhinehart has been an associate general counsel at the AFL-CIO since 1996, focusing on governance, safety and health law, diversity policy and work with the 1900-member Lawyers Coordinating Committee.  A former staffer to Sen. Howard Metzenbaum on the Senate Labor Committee and a member of the Obama transition team for the National Labor Relations Board, she has served as co-chair of the ABA Committee on Occupational Safety and Health Law. Damon Silvers as Director of Policy and Special Counsel – Silvers has been an associate general counsel of the AFL-CIO since 1997, specializing in business law and retirement issues.  He led the team that won severance benefits for Enron and WorldCom workers and was appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP, where he is Deputy Chair. Terry Stapleton as Chief Budget Officer – Stapleton will work out of the President's Office, where he will oversee budgets across all departments.  Since 2004, he has served the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) as Secretary Treasurer, the union’s chief financial officer.  He is vice chair of the AFL-CIO Executive Council Committee on State and Local Strategies, a trustee of the Executive Council of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and a board member of Union Privilege.  From 1991 – 1997, he was an appointee of Gov. Ann Richards to the Texas State Credit Union Commission. Jane McDonald, Executive Assistant to Executive Vice President Holt Baker, will continue in her current job. – photo: at the October 8 teacher’s Rally for Respect outside the DC City Council; photo by Chris Garlock