[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3270-S3271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ACCOLADES TO LANE KIRKLAND

  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Joseph Lane 
Kirkland, who last summer announced he would not seek reelection as 
president of the AFL-CIO. Lane Kirkland has been a friend since I 
arrived in Washington in 1972. He and his wife, Irena, are a great 
partnership, a great team, and my wife Colleen and I have been very 
honored to be their friends.
  Lane Kirkland is the son of the modern South. Born in 1922 in South 
Carolina, he is the son of a cotton merchant and was raised in the 
textile town of Camden. As a child in the 1930's, Lane Kirkland had 
classmates who lived in mill villages and worked as sweepers in the 
mills after school. Seeing the conditions under which they lived and 
worked convinced Lane that unions were needed to protect workers. He 
held that view and still holds that view. He certainly devoted his life 
to that view.
  Like some of his childhood friends, Lane's wife, Irena, endured a 
painful, indeed, a traumatic and tragic ordeal early in her life. Irena 
survived the concentration camps of World War II, and when the 
Communists took over her native Czechoslovakia, she was imprisoned just 
before she escaped the country. Irena's firsthand experience of 
oppression and, indeed, terrible, terrible tragedy, deepened Lane 
Kirkland's already strong concern for the freedom of people all over 
the world. Irena has been a strong partner

[[Page S3271]]

in the Kirklands' dedicated quest for freedom of people behind the Iron 
Curtain and indeed throughout the world.
  Upon conclusion of high school, Lane was a student at Newberry 
College. He later graduated from the United States Merchant Marine 
Academy in 1942. During World War II, Lane served as a deck officer on 
a number of merchant marine vessels that transported ammunition for our 
troops on the front lines. After his service in the merchant marine, 
Lane enrolled in the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
  Following his graduation from Georgetown in 1948, Lane began his work 
as a researcher for the American Federation of Labor and rose through 
the ranks serving as an assistant to the late George Meany, and was 
elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1969. Ten years later, 
he was elected president of the AFL-CIO, a post he held for the next 16 
years.
  During Lane's almost three decades in the highest ranks of labor 
leadership, he played a critical role in unifying what he termed the 
``House of Labor.'' Under his leadership, the International Brotherhood 
of Teamsters, the United States Automobile Workers, the International 
Longshore and Warehouseman's Union of the West Coast, and the United 
Mine Workers of America came back into the overall AFL-CIO fold.
  Although I certainly did not vote for labor's legislative position as 
often as Lane would have liked, I always respected his views. He 
presented those views to Capitol Hill with courage, with conviction, 
and with honesty and integrity. Lane was tough, erudite and unwavering 
in his promotion of workers rights. Lane Kirkland never lost sight of 
the needs of America's workers, but his concern also included workers 
around the globe, particularly those behind the Iron Curtain. Lane 
Kirkland has been a stalwart advocate of human rights and he led the 
American labor movement by providing critical practical help at crucial 
moments.
  In my view, Lane Kirkland has done as much as any living American to 
hold America to a steadfast course during the long cold war and to 
encourage freedom throughout Eastern Europe and throughout the world. 
Lane was the stalwart supporter of a strong national defense. He never 
wavered in his conviction that a strong America was essential not only 
to protect America but to promote freedom across the globe.
  Mr. President, when I first came to the Senate, the defense budget, 
the whole idea of a strong national security, was under severe attack. 
We were coming out of the Vietnam War. We had been disillusioned by our 
participation in that conflict. The defense budget itself, indeed, 
America's national security, was under very severe scrutiny and attack. 
Lane Kirkland stood up many, many times, many times quietly but 
effectively making sure that his support for strong national security 
was known by people on Capitol Hill. That made a big, big difference in 
a period of time where our military forces needed strong voices and 
courageous voices.
  We need only also recall Lane's effort in the early days of the 
Solidarity movement in Poland. As an editorial in last summer's Detroit 
News so accurately recounted:

       When the trade union Solidarity bravely emerged in the 
     1980s to fight the Polish communist regime, Mr. Kirkland and 
     other labor officials smuggled money, printing presses and 
     even electronic equipment to keep the fledgling anti-
     communist movement alive. . . . When it came time to confront 
     the gravest security threat this country has ever faced, Mr. 
     Kirkland did not flinch. He fought communism and supported 
     fledgling democratic movements that contributed to the demise 
     of many totalitarian regimes. For that effort, he deserves 
     everyone's appreciation.

  Mr. President, I certainly endorse that editorial.
  Lane Kirkland truly deserves America's appreciation. He has devoted 
his life to improving the lives of all Americans and to extending our 
democratic values throughout the world. Lane Kirkland is an able and 
courageous individual whose leadership at the head of the labor 
movement will be sorely missed. I am confident that he will continue to 
make a very strong national security contribution as well as a 
contribution to the well-being of workers here in America and, indeed, 
people all over the world. I am confident that he and Irena will 
continue to serve their country, the workers of America, and the cause 
of freedom in whatever they undertake. I extend my sincere thanks to 
both the Kirklands, Lane and Irena, for their devotion to their fellow 
man, and I wish them the very best in all of their future activities.

                          ____________________