[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S11376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             LANE KIRKLAND

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, earlier today, there was a memorial 
service for former AFL-CIO president, Joseph Land Kirkland, on the 
campus of Georgetown University. I was deeply saddened to hear of 
Lane's passing and would like to reflect for just a few moments on his 
life and his enormous contribution to organized labor in America.
  Lane Kirland spent virtually his entire working life in the service 
of his country. As a young man, he enrolled in the first class of the 
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and served the duration of World War II as 
a transport officer. Following the war, Lane went back to school, 
taking night classes at Georgetown, and received a degree in foreign 
relations in 1948. He intended to enter the foreign service and 
represent American interests abroad, but shortly after graduation he 
took a low-level research position with the American Federation of 
Labor.
  That seemingly temporary sidestep would become the consuming mission 
of his working life. An unlikely labor leader, born of a well-to-do 
southern family and schooled in international relations, Lane became a 
strong advocate for justice in the workplace and a champion of human 
dignity. From 1948 until, some would say, the day he died, he fought 
for working people--for higher wages, better health care, and greater 
protections for workers health and safety. It is a credit to his skill, 
intellect and unflagging determination that he was elected president of 
the AFL-CIO in 1979, a post he faithfully held for 16 years.
  Lane was a titan of the American labor movement. A man of great 
personal strength, Lane used his talent and energy to act upon his 
convictions, uniting people of diverse backgrounds and improving the 
lives of countless working families across this country and around the 
world. During Lane's tenure as president, organized labor faced ever-
increasing challenges which called for strong, decisive leadership. 
With union membership declining across the country, Lane fought 
successfully to unite the Nation's largest and best-known unions under 
the AFL-CIO, guaranteeing the continued vitality of organized labor and 
ensuring it a position in American political discourse well into the 
21st century.
  His vision for trade unionism did not stop at the water's edge. Under 
Lane's stewardship, the AFL-CIO reached out to workers around the 
world. Like few others at the time, Lane understood the global struggle 
embodied in the cold war. He was a man of great insight, and he 
realized that a fair workplace could be used as a lever to create a 
fairer society. Ardently anticommunist, Lane believed personal freedom 
was the right of every man, woman, and child and saw the union as a 
vehicle of freedom. Thus, he supported trade unions in China, Cuba, 
South Africa, Chile, and Poland, where unions were severely suppressed 
and personal freedoms denied. When Solidarity assumed power in Poland, 
Lane's faith in the power of trade unions and lifetime of work to build 
them were irrefutably vindicated.
  With Lane's passing, a bright light for trade unions has been 
extinguished. He will be greatly missed. My thoughts and prayers are 
with his wife, Irena, and his family.

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