Lane Kirkland, Former President of AFL-CIO, Dies at 77 by Jeff Burman Joseph Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995, died on August 14 at his Washington home of lung cancer. He was 77. Lane Kirkland Kirkland, working closely with his mentor George Meany, and later in his own right, was a fixture of the American labor movement for nearly 47 years. He was a dedicated internationalist, lending crucial support to the Solidarity union movement in Poland, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the struggle against Pinochet in Chile. Kirkland unified and strengthened the AFL-CIO by bringing several major unions under the same umbrella, particularly the Auto Workers, the Teamsters and the Mine Workers. He modernized the American labor movement by forming an institute for training organizers, the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, and by creating the Labor Institute for Public Affairs. He changed the face of the federation's leadership body, the Executive Council, to include more women and minorities, and put in place programs to reduce the conflict between unions in organizing campaigns. From the beginning, he proved to be an unlikely union boss: an intellectual and an insider. He quoted Latin scholars and Lenin, loved modern art and jazz, and was a prolific reader and gardener. As a boy, in Newberry, South Carolina, Kirkland went to school with sons and daughters of mill workers. "They'd leave school to work in the mills, and conditions were rather bad," he once told the Washington Post. "If they'd fire a guy, he'd lose his house. He'd lose everything. There's no better way to get an education in becoming liberal than to be exposed to those sorts of things." A skilled writer, Kirkland wrote speeches for presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956 while on loan from organized labor. In 1960 he was chosen to be George Meany's executive assistant and was soon directing the AFL-CIO's daily operations and doggedly working the halls of Capitol Hill. He was a vigorous campaigner, combating racial discrimination within the union federation while also pushing for anti-discrimination laws in Congress. He lobbied strenuously for fair employment practices in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and supported President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty. In 1969, Meany named Kirkland secretary-treasurer, assuring him the role of heir apparent. The baton was formally passed in September 1979. In his acceptance speech, Kirkland pledged to persuade nonaffiliated unions to join or rejoin the AFL-CIO, asking them to set aside "petty personal or pecuniary considerations, or ancient tedious grudges." When he succeeded at this goal, he considered it one of his greatest achievements. Kirkland also carried on his interest in supporting labor struggles overseas. In fact, his term in office saw more money spent on international affairs than on organizing, civil rights and workers' health and safety. In June 1995, Kirkland stepped down after simmering conflicts within the American labor movement about the decline of union membership and its effectiveness. The year before, President Clinton, calling him "one of the towering figures in the American labor movement," awarded Kirkland the Presidential Medal of Freedom.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 6 - Sep/Oct 1999   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700