[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8729-8730]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING FRED DOUGLAS MASON, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2017

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I wish to commend a great American who has 
devoted more than five decades of his life to the continuing struggle 
of our nation's working families for greater opportunity, empowerment, 
and social justice.
  On June 16, Fred Douglas Mason, Jr., who retired in April as 
President of the Maryland-District of Columbia AFL-CIO and its 384,000 
members, will be honored at a dinner in his honor.
  We would be remiss if we did not recognize the contributions and 
struggles of Fred Mason and all the other hard-working Americans who 
forge our steel, build our automobiles, care for our families in times 
of illness or injury, teach our children, and contribute their sweat 
and toil to enriching our lives in so many other ways.
  Fred Mason's career, both on the assembly lines of Baltimore and as a 
union organizer and leader, exemplified the strong and resilient 
character of the Americans he served during the last 52 years.
  Fred personally experienced the heartbreak that wreaked havoc on the 
economic and social order of our Greater Baltimore community--as 
Bethlehem Steel, General Motors, General Electric, Proctor and Gamble 
and other manufacturing corporations abandoned their Baltimore 
operations, leaving nearly 100,000 working families to reach deeply 
into their hearts, pull themselves together, and chart new courses for 
their lives.
  Fred Mason also knew the empowering strength of education that 
provides needed skills and justifies a living wage, a health care plan 
and a secure retirement.
  Throughout his career, he worked tirelessly to expand the job 
training and tuition assistance that has allowed so many of his 
brothers and sisters to build better lives.
  From his earliest days as a student at Morgan State College (now 
University), Fred Mason also understood that an integrated America, 
both racially and socio-economically, is a stronger and more prosperous 
nation.
  And although he will be laying down the gavel as President of the 
Maryland-DC AFL-CIO, I am confident that Fred Mason will carry on in 
the cause of universal civil and human rights.
  I hold this conviction because, like Fred Mason, I, too, am a son of 
labor and a civil rights worker.
  And like Fred Mason, we all must understand that the civil rights 
movement of our own time is not limited to issues of race or gender or 
freedom of conscience--as critically important as those struggles 
remain.
  The civil rights movement of our time, Mr. Speaker, is also about 
whether parents can afford to feed and house their children--and 
provide those children with the education and health care that they 
need and deserve.
  The choice is ours.
  Will America once again become a nation of opportunity for everyone 
willing to work hard?
  Or will hard-working Americans continue to be squeezed past the 
breaking point by policies, enacted from afar, that devalue our people, 
our economy and the nation that we love?
  Mr. Speaker, this is the message that Fred Mason has lived and taught 
to others for more than five decades--and the same message that has 
become central to the national debates of our own time.

[[Page 8730]]

  It was at Morgan State College that Fred first came to understand 
that organization matters and is critical to progress in our country in 
the area of Civil Rights.
  At Bethlehem Steel and on the assembly lines of General Motors, Fred 
Mason came to realize that working people can become empowered if they 
organize.
  Now, in retirement, Fred also knows that the struggle to organize 
America must continue.
  He knows that political democracy in America is irrevocably linked to 
the expanded economic and social democracy that has carried so many 
closer to the American Dream.
  And above all, Fred Mason has taught us that our struggle for the 
American Dream continues despite the attacks of recent years.
  I have faith that dedicated, strong Americans like Fred Mason will 
always be there on the front lines.
  And for all of these contributions, we should thank Fred Mason and 
his wonderful wife, Jennifer, and wish them well.

                          ____________________