Ray Waldron, soon to become the chief spokesman for Minnesota workers, will sometimes drive through the Phillips neighborhood of south Minneapolis. As he passes his childhood home, he remembers what it was like to grow up in a tough neighborhood, one of three children of a single mother.

Ray Waldron

"Not many people came out of there unscathed," he said. "When you grow up poor, you never want to be poor again."

Times have improved for the Phillips neighborhood and for Waldron as well. On Aug. 1, the one-time roofer will become president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents 400,000 unionized workers and speaks on behalf of all working families in the state.

Waldron, 54, replaces Bernard Brommer, who is retiring after more than 10 years in the post. Preparation for the new job included serving as secretary-treasurer of the state federation since 1999, as president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council from 1990 to 1999 and as a member of the Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Council since 1990.

And he's had the kind of preparation you can only get from shingling roofs in the hot sun.

After being trained in the Air Force as an air traffic controller, Waldron found he could earn more money by working as a roofer. In 1970 he joined Roofers Local 96. He became recording secretary of the local three years later, an organizer a year after that and eventually became the business representative for all of the Building Trades unions in Minneapolis.

Success in the Building Trades
While at the Building Trades, Waldron helped initiate a number of innovations to boost union construction. Particularly successful has been the Market Recovery Program, which provides financial and other incentives to assist union contractors in winning bids. At the same time, both workers and management put a strong focus on safety.

As a result, the Building Trades can point with pride to many union-built projects around the Twin Cities, including the Minneapolis Convention Center and the Mall of America.

"Our approach worked," Waldron said. "Our members made a lot of money. They worked a lot of hours. They were among the highest paid in the country. No concessions."

Waldron said he would like to bring that level of success to all workers by helping them become union members.

"All you have to do is read the statistics," he notes. "You make more money as a union member. You have more voice at work as a union member."

Many of society's problems, such as the lack of affordable housing, could be addressed if people earned a decent wage, he said.

Organizing is part of the solution. So is political activism, he said. "It's going to take some hard work in the political arena to elect people who understand what working values are."

Active in the community
Waldron has demonstrated his commitment to Minnesota's working families both on and off the job. A board member and volunteer for the Minneapolis Urban League since 1979, Waldron is in his 11^th year as a board member of the Vinland Center and helped to lead a Building Trades campaign to remodel and upgrade the facilities at Minneapolis' Harriet Tubman Center, a shelter for abused women and children.

He is passionate about such causes. "Violence against women gets me pissed off," he said. "It's just unacceptable."

On June 9, the day after he was elected to the presidency of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Waldron boarded his motorcycle for another community services project. He and 12 other riders participated in the first-ever Dollars Against Diabetes motorcycle run from the Twin Cities to Duluth and back.

"We raised $4,000" for diabetes research, he noted, "and we're going to do it again next year."

Barb Kucera is editor of www.workdayminnesota.org

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