[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 159 (Thursday, November 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A TRIBUTE IN MEMORY OF VICTOR VAN BOURG

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 10, 1999

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, it is with a great sense of loss that I rise to 
pay tribute to Mr. Victor Van Bourg, one of the nation's leading labor 
union lawyers, who recently passed away at the age of 68.
  As a young man, Mr. Van Bourg joined the building trades as a member 
of his father's Local of the Painters' Union. He later attended the 
University of California at Berkeley where he earned a Bachelor of Arts 
degree in 1953 and his law degree from the University's Boalt Hall 
School of Law in 1956.
  In 1964, Mr. Van Bourg co-founded the law offices of Van Bourg, 
Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, one of the largest union-side law firms in 
the country.
  During his career, he appeared numerous times before the United 
States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, as well as many 
other State and Federal Courts, and administrative agencies. One of his 
most recent victories included a unanimous California Supreme Court 
decision upholding the validity of a labor agreement guaranteeing that 
all work on the San Francisco Airport's multi-billion dollar expansion 
project would be completed with union workers.
  Mr. Van Bourg was a fierce believer that only through unions could 
workers gain the strength to stand up to the otherwise unrestrained 
power of their employers, and he spent his life trying to even the odds 
against workers and unions.
  Mr. Van Bourg represented workers all over the country, in every 
trade and profession where workers gathered in unions, from carpenters 
to costume designers, from teachers and professors to janitors, 
healthcare workers, cement masons, and stationary and operating 
engineers. He also traveled abroad to meet with workers and their 
unions in nations including Poland, the USSR, and Israel.
  Van Bourg was also General Counsel to the Ironworkers' International 
Union for more than a decade, spending much of his time in Washington, 
D.C., not only to represent the Ironworkers' International, but also 
participating in the AFL-CIO's General Counsels' Committee, and meeting 
with and advising labor leaders from all over the nation.
  Mr. Van Bourg will be missed by his family, friends, colleagues, and 
members of the labor community. He may be one of those remarkable human 
beings who is truly indispensable.

                          ____________________