[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H9456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JACK HENNING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Brown] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
the life and career of John F. ``Jack'' Henning.
  On Tuesday, July 30, 1996, yesterday, the California labor movement 
bid a fond farewell to their top leader for the past 26 years. Mr. 
Henning, at the age of 80 years, retired as executive secretary-
treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
  Born in San Francisco, where he was raised in a blue collar family, 
Jack earned a college degree in English literature at St. Mary's 
College. Mr. Henning's rise in labor unions began in the 1940's, when 
he held jobs in a pipe and steel plant; and in 1949, he began working 
at the California Labor Federation, initially as a senior staffer. Mr. 
Henning has also served as Director of the California Department of 
Industrial Relations in the early 1960's, where I worked closely with 
him in my role as a member of the State Assembly Committee on 
Industrial Relations.
  He also worked as Under Secretary of Labor in both the Kennedy and 
Johnson administrations, where again I worked closely with him as a 
Member of Congress and a member of the Committee on Education and 
Labor. In addition to his already distinguished career, Mr. Henning was 
also the Ambassador to New Zealand from 1967 to 1969, where again I 
visited with him on my first trip to Anarctica, and a Regent of the 
University of California from 1977 to 1989.
  After Mr. Henning returned home from New Zealand, he took the helm of 
the California Labor Federation, and for the past 26 years never faced 
an opponent for the post.
  Throughout his career in the labor union movement, which he began as 
a young man in 1938, he was heralded as a master orator, ``thundering 
from the political left against what he regards as the scourge of 
unbridled capitalism.'' Mr. Henning has been a champion of the working 
poor and underclass, fighting to increase their standard of living. Mr. 
Henning was instrumental in the passage of the California Agricultural 
Labor Relations Act of 1975, which gave farm workers the right to 
organize and bargain collectively, as he was in sponsoring an 
initiative in 1988 which regulated workplace health and safety for the 
state's workers.
  During his farewell address, he called upon those to his political 
right to visit any major U.S. city and ``see what capital has done to 
the poor, see the centers of wealth and the mansions and the corporate 
wealth, and then see the impoverished . . . homeless, beggers at the 
table of wealth.'' One of his many accomplishments has been preventing 
restaurant owners from counting tips as part of the minimum wage.
  Jack Henning has left behind a career in the labor union movement in 
which his contributions will not be forgotten. His tough negotiating 
skills along with his ability to sway people with his orations, have 
provided labor employees with better working conditions. He has truly 
been an inspiration to me and to others who are fighting to protect the 
jobs and lives of the citizens of California.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending Jack 
Henning on his dedicated service to the California Labor Federation and 
to the workers of the State of California.

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