Monterey, CA

Our friend and brother Vice President Mike Monroe, retired president of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, has resigned from this Executive Council after a lifetime of committed and dedicated service to his union, the AFL-CIO, and the best interests and well-being of working people across the country.

Mike Monroe has faithfully served the Painters union for 43 years, as a member and an officer who has been honored by his fellow members with election to every elective office in his union. Beginning with his post as financial secretary of Local 890 in Alexandria, Virginia, and rising through the ranks of his union’s district and national structure, he was first elected general vice president of the Painters in 1974. He was elected as its secretary-treasurer in 1984, and in 1992, the membership elected him as the general president of the union.

Brother Monroe became a vice president of the AFL-CIO at the federation’s convention in 1995. In his tenure on the council, he has served with distinction on the Community Services, Organizing and Social Policy Committees providing the benefit of his experience, good judgment and comprehensive experience as a leader.

Throughout his career, Mike Monroe has been an advocate of a strong, resilient labor movement dedicated to organizing and to recognizing and providing serving the best interests of workers in their union, in their industry and in society as a whole.

On behalf of the men and women of the unions of the AFL-CIO, the Executive Council expresses its gratitude and thanks to Mike Monroe for his principled and tireless dedication to the highest standards of leadership in his union, to the labor movement and to working families everywhere.

This council directs that this expression be placed in the permanent records of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.