Recognizing Michael Carrigan for Years of Dedication and Service to the People of Illinois
Floor Speech
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Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Michael Carrigan for a lifetime of vigorous and effective advocacy protecting the rights of workers in my home state of Illinois and working men and women across the United States. Michael Carrigan's life is a quintessentially American story of talent, determination and deeply felt ambition to build a better world. He began his career as a journeyman wireman and a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Displaying an early talent for organizing, Michael quickly rose through the ranks to become business manager and financial secretary for IBEW Local 146, and then assumed greater positions of responsibility in the Illinois AFL-CIO as Secretary-Treasurer and President. Michael also held a variety of positions of national leadership in organized labor, somehow found time to serve nearly four terms on the Decatur City Council, and briefly as the Mayor of Decatur. During his tenure as president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, Michael played a key role organizing support to increase the Illinois minimum wage to $15 an hour, and to enact a $45 billion dollar capital improvements bill that will fund the repair of aging infrastructure in our state. He continues to work tirelessly to build support for a progressive state income tax that asks our wealthiest citizens to shoulder their fair share of the cost of government, while providing revenue streams sufficient to balance our budget and fund education, important social services, and our state's pension obligations to its workers. In 2018, Michael was the first Illinois resident to receive the World Peace Prize ``Roving Ambassador for Peace'' award. In accepting this honor, Michael observed that all peaceful societies are built upon foundations of economic justice: ``The Labor Movement and its allies build peace through economic and social justice causes . . . Our fight for justice knows no borders, and the enemies of peace are the enemies of [social and economic] justice.'' Madam Speaker, on behalf of the 900,000 members of the Illinois AFL- CIO and the millions of hard-working men and women in our country who owe so much to Michael Carrigan, I offer my gratitude for his years of dedicated and selfless service to our country. Although Michael may be retiring from the Illinois AFL-CIO, I know he will not retire from his commitment to public service, and I wish him great success in all his future endeavors.
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