Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the national AFL-CIO, left union office last month to become chief program officer for Greenpeace USA. As the third highest ranking official in the labor movement, Gebre had focused on building coalitions with other groups, including environmental groups like Greenpeace. Gebre, who fled war-torn Ethiopia at age 14, became active in the Los Angeles area labor movement in the 1990s, and became executive director of the Orange County Labor Federation in 2008. In 2013, he was invited by then-AFL-CIO-president Rich Trumka to replace Arlene Holt Baker as executive vice president.
“I’ve spent my life fighting for workers’ rights, but I know that none of it will matter if we don’t have a safe and stable planet to work on,” Gebre said announcing the move. “The climate crisis is the fight of our lifetime.”
