[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 16, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  JIM MAHLER, LABOR LEADER OF THE YEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 16, 2011

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a very dedicated 
committed leader of the labor movement who deserves to be recognized 
for his many achievements and contributions to organized labor.
  The past year was an important one in the history of California's 
Labor Movement, with workers campaigning to restore a pro-labor 
governor for California.
  Tens of thousands of California's union members dedicated 2010 to 
ensuring that our next governor would stand up for the fundamental 
right of workers to organize.
  In San Diego, American Federation of Teachers Local 1931 President 
Jim Mahler answered nearly every call in ensuring that collective 
bargaining rights and worker protections remained a priority in 
California.
  As workers prepared for the March for California's Future, which 
featured union members marching from Bakersfield to Sacramento in a 
call to solve the state's budget crisis, Mahler committed his union to 
driving its success. Several buses full of AFT Local 1931 members and 
their students left San Diego City College at dawn on March 5, bound 
for Los Angeles and Bakersfield, to kick off the historic march.
  When the Labor Council proposed an aggressive approach to courting 
voters' support for Jerry Brown for governor, Mahler and AFT Local 1931 
committed $100,000 to fund the program. He also realized money alone 
could not win the governor's race, so he organized nightly phone banks 
to support Brown and Proposition 25, the simple majority budget bill. 
His organizing yielded phone bank nights and Saturday precinct walks 
that overflowed with student and teacher volunteers.
  For his dedication to keeping California worker-friendly, I join with 
the Executive Board of the Labor Council in congratulating Jim Mahler 
as the 2011 Labor Leader of the Year.

                          ____________________