Meet the Speakers: Monday
August 12, 2024
Terry Melvin
Terry Melvin is president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and secretary-treasurer of the New York State AFL-CIO. Melvin began his career in 1980 with CSEA, which represents state workers across New York. He was elected the union’s youngest local president in 1983 and later served the union as an executive assistant.
Melvin was elected to lead the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists in 2012, and was elected secretary-treasurer of the New York State AFL-CIO in 2007. As president of the CBTU, he has led the storied institution in its continued efforts to protect the workplace and collective bargaining rights of Black union members nationwide. As secretary-treasurer of the New York AFL-CIO, he leads one of America’s most influential state federations.
Rep. Steven Horsford
Rep. Steven Horsford is a true friend to America’s union members and federal workers. Horsford has earned an A+ rating from the AFL-CIO every year he has served in Congress and has consistently been on the front lines in the fight for workers’ rights.
Horsford has broken barriers throughout his career, making history as the first African-American Senate majority leader in the Nevada Legislature and the first African American to represent Nevada in Congress. Horsford has dedicated his career to ensuring that the working people of Nevada and this nation have a strong social safety net, fair treatment on the job, and economic justice.
Susie Martinez
Susie Martinez is a lifelong fellow unionist and has been a member of Teamsters Local 986 for over 35 years. A native Nevadan, Martinez has dedicated her career to improving the conditions for workers in the Silver State.
Martinez served her state as an assemblywoman fighting for workers’ rights in the state capitol from 2018 to 2022, representing District 12, which covers eastern Las Vegas in Clark County. She broke barriers as the first Latina to serve her district. Martinez also is the secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO and is the first Latina to hold that position.
Liz Shuler
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler made history as the first woman president of the nation’s largest labor federation. Since her election, she’s continued the fight for an America that works for its working people as one of America’s premier voices for organized labor.
For President Shuler, labor is a family affair. She began her career organizing clerical workers for IBEW 915 in Portland, Ore. – the same union her father was a proud member of. In 2009, she made history when she became the first woman to be elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.
Shuler has continued to lead our federation through one of the most monumental moments for America’s labor movement. At a time of great potential and uncertainty, she has guided the AFL-CIO through a rising tide of support for organized labor and the difficulties posed by the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Shuler has always stood with AFGE, and we are proud to stand with her.
