PHOENIX (AP) - A top Arizona labor leader will soon step down.
Rebekah Friend has announced she will retire May 1 as executive director and secretary-treasurer of the Arizona AFL-CIO, a federation that represents 180,000 union members in 200 union locals.
Friend jointed the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers over 35 years ago and in 2002 became the first woman elected president of the Arizona AFL-CIO. She became the state federation’s first female secretary-treasurer in 2005.
Friend led a 2006 coalition that won voter approval of an initiative measure to raise Arizona’s minimum wage to $6.75 along with annual cost-of-living adjustments.
In 2007, she was a key figure in winning legislative approval of a bipartisan compromise to increase compensation for workers hurt on the job.
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