Executive Council Statement

William Bywater

Washington, DCWHEREAS, our friend and brother William Bywater, former president of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Technical, Salaried and Machine Workers, has resigned from this Executive Council; andWHEREAS, William Bywater has devoted his life to thededicated and faithful service of the members of his union and of the labor movement for more than five decades; andWHEREAS, he began his union career in 1941 as a member of IUE Local 425 in New York, eventually becoming president of that union and the first chairman of IUE_s national IUE-Sperry Rand conference board leading all of the union_s negotiations with the corporation; andWHEREAS, William Bywater was elected to numerous offices within his union, becoming national secretary-treasurer of IUE in 1980 and national president in 1982. He was elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 1983; andWHEREAS, William Bywater_s lifetime of service to working families has been distinguished by his heartfelt beliefs in the rights and dignity of all workers, in the right of every worker to organize a union and bargain for fair and decent treatment; andWHEREAS, he has been an outspoken and unflinching opponent of the exploitation of workers in the United States or in any country around the world, whether it is in the form of injustice and abuse on the job or in the aftermath of cold, uncaring economic policies and unfair trade practices that pander to corporations_ global search for the cheapest labor.RESOLVED, that this Executive Council of the AFL-CIO Expresses its gratitude and appreciation to William Bywater for his contributions to the American labor movement and his tireless fight for justice and for all working people everywhere.RESOLVED, that this expression of appreciation be perpetuated in the permanent records of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.