[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MS. SHAR KNUTSON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. KEITH ELLISON

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 29, 2015

  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Shar 
Knutson, who on October 15th, 2015 will retire from her post as the 
first woman to serve as president of Minnesota AFL-CIO. Ms. Knutson has 
led the 300,000-member state branch of the American Federation of Labor 
and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) since 2009.
   The Labor movement runs deep for Ms. Knutson, who was raised in a 
union family and worked a union job as a single parent, experiencing 
firsthand the benefits of organizing for improving lives.
   Prior to her election in August 2009, Ms. Knutson served as 
president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation for a decade. One 
of her signature victories occurred in 1999, when she led a coalition 
of labor and community leaders to successfully oppose then-St. Paul 
Mayor Norm Coleman's effort to outsource the city's public water works 
to a non-union firm.
   Before her union work, she was a policy analyst to former St. Paul 
Mayor Jim Scheibel, specializing in labor, health and immigration 
issues. She served on the Greater Twin Cities United Way board as well 
as the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Advisory Council.
   As head of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Ms. Knutson helped lead the 
coalition that successfully raised Minnesota's minimum wage, 
coordinated efforts that kept a ``Right to Work'' constitutional 
amendment off the ballot, and increased political participation among 
union members. Also under her leadership, the Minnesota AFL-CIO 
successfully passed legislation extending unemployment benefits for 
locked out workers, opened up new avenues for women and young workers 
to be involved in the labor movement, and built an infrastructure to 
support affiliate unions in their organizing efforts.
   I am privileged to recognize the decades of tireless advocacy of Ms. 
Shar Knutson, whose contributions to Minnesota's workers will be felt 
for years to come.

                          ____________________