[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 154 (Friday, November 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         HONORING DAVID KRAMER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 18, 2005

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life 
and achievements of David P. Kramer of Oakland, California.
  Serving the working people of California for 34 years, David Kramer 
has been known throughout his career for his dedication to civil rights 
as well as his unwavering commitment to the labor movement. Today our 
community comes together to celebrate his career and achievements on 
the occasion of his retirement from SEIU Local 535 in Berkeley, 
California.
  David Kramer was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1941. After 
graduating from Scott High School in North Braddock, Pennsylvania in 
1959, he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now known as 
Carnegie Mellon University. Following his studies there, he was hired 
by the Ford Motor Company, where he worked toward honing the skills he 
had acquired in school. However, in 1964 he quit his job and immersed 
himself in the burgeoning civil rights movement that was gaining 
strength throughout the United States.
  As part of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), David was involved 
in countless picketing and protest efforts that were aimed at achieving 
integration and equal employment. He was part of a crew of 60 involved 
in testing and enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the 
integration of public facilities and voter registration procedures in 
Monroe, West Monroe, New Rhodes, and Baton Rouge, among other places in 
Louisiana. When he returned to Detroit in the spring of 1965, he became 
the first community organizer to work for the West Central 
Organization, which rallied members of the African American and rural 
Appalachian communities, together with neighborhood churches, union 
halls, block clubs, and social organizations. This coalition organized 
around issues such as school and police community relations, tenant 
rights, and urban renewal.
  In 1967, David enrolled in the University of Michigan Graduate School 
of Social Work, where he graduated with a Masters of Social Work degree 
in Community Organizing in 1968. As part of his studies, he served in 
the Wayne County Office of Equal Opportunity and Detroit People Against 
Racism (PAR), an organization of which he eventually served as the 
executive director. During this time he also became deeply involved in 
the anti-Vietnam War movement, participating in demonstrations across 
the country, including at the Democratic Convention in 1968.
  In 1969 he worked as a ``lumper'' on the night shift in a warehouse 
in Detroit, where he began to get more involved with the labor movement 
as a member of Teamsters Local 299 and from which he still holds his 
honorable withdraw card. In 1971, David was appointed as a field 
representative of SEIU Local 535. His was first assigned to represent 
the Santa Clara County social workers and to organize county 
eligibility workers for Local 535, and was instrumental in securing 
representation rights for the workers. From 1971 to 1976, David worked 
with the Santa Clara County, Sacramento County, Stanislaus County, 
Berkeley, St. Vincent's School, Irwin Memorial Blood Bank, Sunny Hills, 
and Alameda County chapters of SEIU, and was elected to the Executive 
Committee of the Central Labor Council of Alameda in 1975. In the 
following year, David underwent an intense and unforgettable experience 
in which a 49-day strike involving 5,000 members took place, the 
longest county-wide strike in California history. In October 1976, he 
became the Executive Director of SEIU Local 616, where he served until 
May of 1980. He ultimately resigned from 616 in order to pursue a 
career as a self-employed carpenter.
  In 1982, David returned to the labor movement and joined the Alameda 
County Tri-Local agency shop campaign to serve as an organizer, and in 
1983 he once again became an organizer for Local 535, albeit for only a 
short period of time. During this time, he aided in the largest union 
security election in the history of the labor movement to date, 
involving more than 80,000 State workers and four bargaining units, of 
which 3 were won.
  When David permanently returned to Local 535, he succeeded in 
organizing the North Bay Regional Center. He also made negotiations for 
the first contract for the Clinica de la Raza, and served the San 
Francisco chapter of Local 535 for 2 years. In November 1988, he became 
the northern regional director of Local 535, where he supervised 14 
field staffs in 535's Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Clara, and Fresno 
offices. David Kramer was eventually named Executive Director of Local 
535 in the fall of 1996. Less than a year later in June of 1997, he was 
elected to serve on the SEIU's International Executive Board, a 
position he will continue to hold until February 2006.
  David also serves our community on the Oakland Board of Port 
Commissioners, a post to which he was nominated by former Oakland Mayor 
Elihu Harris. He has been reappointed three times since, making his 
record fourth appointment a first in the history of the Port of 
Oakland, and making David the Port's longest serving commissioner.
  Today David Kramer's family, friends and colleagues come together to 
celebrate the impact of his life and work not only on the innumerable 
lives, particularly the lives of working people, he has touched here in 
Alameda County, but the lasting effects his dedication and leadership 
have had and will continue to have on our community. On behalf of the 
9th Congressional District of California, I salute and thank David 
Kramer for his invaluable contributions to the people of Alameda 
County, the 9th Congressional District, the State of California and our 
entire country.

                          ____________________