Learn about today's guest speakers.
Randi Weingarten
President, American Federation of Teachers
Labor leader Randi Weingarten is the former president of the United Federation of Teachers and, since 2008, has led the 1.7 million-member union, the American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten is a leading voice in education policy and has promoted a bottom-up approach to education reform that gives teachers more of a say in how to better serve students. She also has worked to draw attention to economic inequalities within cities and regions that can impair public schools and has pushed for creating so-called “community schools” that serve as hubs for addressing community wide issues.
Val Demings
U.S. Representative, Florida’s 10th District
Since 2017, Congresswoman Val Demings has represented Florida’s 10th Congressional District, which covers the western half of Orlando. She is running for the U.S. Senate in the November election. Demings has been a vocal supporter for federal workers, specifically our Transportation Security Administration workforce. She was one of many Florida representatives to oppose then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to privatize airport security screening at the Orlando International Airport back in 2018 – an effort that AFGE was able to defeat with the help of lawmakers like Demings. She also was a vocal advocate for protecting the TSA workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2000, pushing for legislation to provide presumption of workplace illness for federal workers’ compensation for those who contract the virus and provide hazardous duty pay for the front-line TSA workforce.