Honoring Ms. Shar Knutson

Floor Speech

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.

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