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“ON THE PASSING OF GEORGE L.P. WEAVER” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1535-E1536 on July 28, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ON THE PASSING OF GEORGE L.P. WEAVER
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HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Thursday, July 27, 1995
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call to my colleagues' attention the following obituary for George L.P. Weaver which appeared in the July 18, 1995 issue of the Washington Post. With the passing of George Weaver, the country has lost a great American--one who dedicated himself to ensuring equal opportunity and justice for all Americans. The principles for which George Weaver dedicated his life--an abiding respect for the dignity of workers and the worth of labor and an unshakable commitment to ending the scourge of segregation and racism--
both in his service to the labor movement and in his work in Government, are the principles that have served to make this country what it is today. This House turns its back on those principles at its own and the Nation's peril.
[From the Washington Post, July 18, 1995]
George L.P. Weaver, Assistant Secretary of Labor
George L.P. Weaver, 83, a former labor union official who served as assistant secretary of labor for international affairs during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, died July 14 of complications related to emphysema and asthma at George Washington University Hospital.
Mr. Weaver spend most of his working life in activities related to the labor movement, beginning in the 1930s when he carried passengers' baggage as a redcap at railroad stations in Chicago. As a young man, he joined the United Transport Service Employees Union.
Later, he was assistant to the secretary-treasurer and director of the civil rights committee of the old Congress of Industrial Organizations. After the CIO's merger with the American Federation of Labor in 1955, he became executive secretary of the new union's civil rights committee.
In his capacity as assistant secretary of labor for international affairs, Mr. Weaver was the U.S. representative on the governing body of the International Labor Organization. He was chairman of that body in 1968. After stepping down as assistant secretary of labor in 1969, he was assistant to the president of the ILO for about six years.
Mr. Weaver, a Washington resident, was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He attended what now is Roosevelt University in Chicago and Howard University law school.
In 1941, he came to Washington as a member of the CIO's War Relief Committee. A year later, he became assistant to the secretary-treasurer and director of the civil rights committee. During the next dozen years, he took leaves of absence to serve on special government assignments and on overseas missions. The assignments included service in 1950 as special assistant to Stuart Symington, chairman of the National Security Resources Board, and assisting in the reorganization of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
He participated in investigations of labor conditions in various Asian countries for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
In 1958, Mr. Weaver resigned from the AFL-CIO to become assistant to the president of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and director of the union's political education program. He remained in that job until joining the Labor Department in the Kennedy administration.
In 1963, he was the first American to receive the Malayan honorary award of Panglim Mangku Megara. He had served on the boards of trustees of Washington Technical Institution and the University of the District of Columbia, was chairman of the Finance Committee of the United Negro College Fund and was a life member of the NAACP.
Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Mary S. Weaver of Washington, and two sisters, Vivian Belden of Detroit and Annalouise Jenkins of Cleveland.
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