FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 6, 2023
Media Contact: Aaron Pelo, apelo@miaflcio.org | 734.355.2741
Camilleri, Weiss Named 2023 Michigan AFL-CIO State Legislators of the Year
LANSING, Mich. – State Senator Darrin Camilleri (D – Trenton) and State Representative Regina Weiss (D – Oak Park) have been named 2023 State Legislators of the Year by the Michigan AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor organization. The award is presented each year to a state Senator, state Representative, and local official who have gone above and beyond their peers in service to the labor movement and Michigan’s working people.
“Senator Camilleri and Representative Weiss are leading the charge to make Michigan a workers’ rights state and are indispensable to the victories we’ve delivered for working people this year,” said Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron BIEBER. “The work these legislators have done and continue to do every day is nothing short of history-making and will define the next generation of progress for working people in the state. There could not be two state legislators more deserving of this honor. Michigan’s working people and the over 1 million union members and their families represented by the Michigan AFL-CIO thank them for their heroic service.”
Camilleri is the proud son and grandson of union auto workers. Since he was first elected in 2016, Camilleri has consistently introduced legislation to keep Michigan’s promises to working people. He has been an outspoken voice on labor issues and authored the legislation that repealed Michigan’s so-called “right to work” law and restored collective bargaining power for workers across the state.
“As the son and grandson of union auto workers, I was absolutely honored and humbled to receive AFL-CIO’s Legislator of the Year Award,” said CAMILLERI. “The Labor movement built the middle class and made it accessible to families like mine, and this award is really for them – the working people who put their livelihoods on the line to fight for a better and more just world for all of us.”
As a former union teacher, Regina Weiss has been a fierce champion for the labor movement and working people across the state. She introduced the legislation that repealed so-called “right to work” for public sector workers, and led our successful fight to restore teachers and other public sector workers’ voices at the bargaining table.
“Thank you, Michigan AFL-CIO, for naming me legislator of the year,” said WEISS. “I am truly humbled by this distinction. I have dedicated my work in the Legislature to expanding workers’ rights and freedoms. As a former educator, it was a career-high moment and my honor to play a part in the historic repeal of the right-to-work legislation and the restoration of teachers and school employees’ union rights. As we continue to reimagine and reinvent our state, I look forward to making Michigan the premier state in the country for workers’ rights and safety. Thank you, again, to the Michigan AFL-CIO for this honor.”
The Michigan AFL-CIO, Michigan’s largest labor organization, is a federation representing forty different labor organizations, eighteen different central labor councils, and eight constituency groups representing over 1 million union members and their families.
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