The AFL-CIO Executive Council's February meeting kicked off this morning in Orlando, Fla., welcoming two new council members and presenting two new charters for Actors' Equity and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART). 

David B. Durkee, the president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), was sworn into the council. He succeeds Frank Hurt, who retired Jan. 1 after 20 years in office. Read the Executive Council's statement on Hurt's retirement here.  Durkee began his career in 1973 as a baker at Lewis Brothers Bakery in Evansville. He has held various local, regional and national offices, including BCTGM director of organizing. He holds a master's degree from Indiana State University and is a graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program. 

UNITE HERE's national President D. Taylor also was sworn in to the council. Taylor was previously the leader of UNITE HERE’s Local 226 (the Culinary Workers Union) in Las Vegas and was elected president of the national union in November. He replaces John Wilhelm, who served as president since 2009. The Executive Council released a statement honoring Wilhelm's years of service. Read the statement here. 

Actors’ Equity (AEA), the union representing more than 49,000 professional stage actors and stage managers in the United States, today received a historic national charter in its centennial year from the AFL-CIO. The direct charter, which was given at the morning session of the council meeting, makes AEA the 57th labor organization to receive the distinguished honor of formal association with the national federation of America's unions.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presented the charter to AEA First Vice President Paige Price and AEA Executive Director Mary McColl. In addition to President Trumka, on hand for the presentation were AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler and members of the council, representing unions across industries and the nation.  

“For nearly 100 years, Actors’ Equity has stood for excellence in the American theater, and for dignity, fairness and respect for stage actors and managers,” said Trumka. “Today Equity has affirmed those values as well as its affiliation with all of American labor, and we are happy to be presenting this great union with a new AFL-CIO charter.” 

"As actors and stage managers one wouldn’t think of us as union members, but Actors' Equity Association has a long and proud history of being part of the labor movement,” said AEA President Nick Wyman in a statement addressed to the assembly. “It is a cornerstone in Equity’s foundation and we are pleased to receive this direct charter in this, our 100th year. To quote our first president, Francis Wilson, ‘Our trail is out of the wilderness and that trail is affiliation with organized labor.’”

Price, who accepted the charter on behalf of AEA, said: “This year, Equity will mark its 100th anniversary as a union and a member of the labor movement. This charter represents the next act in Equity’s history and, on behalf of my fellow officers, members and staff, I would like to thank President Trumka, Executive Vice President Holt Baker and Secretary-Treasurer Shuler and the members of the council. For all of us, the direct charter renews our commitment to working on behalf of our members and all Americans in creating a workplace where there is fairness and dignity for everyone.”

“This is an important milestone in Equity’s history and we are proud to receive this direct charter,” said McColl. “Equity works to ensure fair compensation, benefits and safe working conditions for its members. By doing that, this union joins our sister unions in the fight to maintain the dignity and rights for all working Americans.”

SMART's new charter is a successor one to those previously issued to the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and the United Transportation Union (UTU), who have merged and are in the process of working out the details of their new merged union. 

This merger is the product of many years of hard work.