A stellar line-up of labor leaders is to be honored at 16th annual Irish Echo Labor Awards in New York on 18 September.
Hailing from across the nation, the 14 recipients of our Labor Ambassador Awards represent the very best of both Irish America and the U.S. labor movement.
And this year again, Gerry Adams, a fierce advocate for transatlantic labor co-operation to fight for better conditions for workers and to spur Irish unity, will deliver a personal message to the Big Apple gathering.
"I want to call on all our friends in the Labor movement to support the Irish Echo awards," he said, "so that we can celebrate great labor leaders who contribute so much to Ireland and to Irish labor."
The Irish remain to the fore across the American labor movement. John Samuelsen heads up the TWU as International President, Sean O'Brien has just been returned as President of the Teamsters for another five-year term and John Downey is President of the International Union of Operating Engineers. Likewise, Ed Kelly is President of the powerful International Fire Fighters Association while fellow-Bostonian Tim Driscoll is President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.
Among this year's honorees will be Maura Drumm of the Teamsters and Michelle Healy, who has just left the Services Employees International Union to take up a post with campaigning not-for-profit Community Change.
Michelle's immigrant dad hailed from an Irish family of 15 and worked all his life in a non-union supermarket butchery post. "He had a beautiful Irish tenor voice and went on to learn arias and operas and how to play piano and even cut a CD," she says. "I learned from him to look beyond who you think someone in a service job is and see them for the whole person they are."
Other honorees include Bob Reiter, President of the Chicago Labor Federation and a International Union of Operating Engineers stalwart from Chicago — he can trace his McGuire of Fermanagh roots back 400 years — and Paddy Reynolds of the Transport Workers Union whose dad hailed from Dublin. Paddy, President of Local 1400 in New York, cites Michael J. Quill, TWU founder, as his hero. "His style of pushing back, being outspoken and committed to workers’ rights, still influences labor movements today," he says.
A posthumous award will be presented to the family of Terry Fitzmaurice, a respected Chicago labor leader and devoted advocate for working men and women who passed away on March 18 at the age of 70.
You can see more about the 2026 Irish Labor Awards on our website.
For further detail, email Louise Maguire at the Echo office in New York or phone 212-482-4818.
