Bill Fletcher

Bill Fletcher, Jr., is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national nonprofit organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Fletcher was formally the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO. At the Meany Center, he worked with foreign labor centers, aiding them in matters of education and organizational change, as well as working to construct stronger ties between respective educational institutions. Additionally, he worked domestically to develop union movement capacity in its relation to organizational change/development. This latter work included supervising and coordinating Meany Center efforts to provide direct technical assistance to labor organizations as well as providing education and training to practitioners seeking to develop expertise in union transformation efforts.

Prior the George Meany Center, Fletcher served as Education Director and later Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. His union staff experience also included the Service Employees International Union, where his last position was Assistant to the President for the East and South. He served as the Organizational Secretary/Administrative Director for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Prior to the Mail Handler's Union, Bill was an organizer for District 65-United Auto Workers in Boston, Massachusetts.

Fletcher got his start in the labor movement as a rank & file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining labor and community work, he was also involved in ongoing efforts to desegregate the Boston building trades.

A graduate of Harvard University, Fletcher has authored numerous articles published in a variety of newspapers and magazines. He is also the co-author of the pictorial booklet: The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941.

While in Boston, Fletcher served as an adjunct faculty member with the Labor Studies Program of the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Topics

US Foreign Policy

Issues Facing Africa the Caribbean and Latin America

Neo-Liberal Globalization

The Labor Movement and Issues of Class

African American history