Subject: [big campaign] Fred Azcarate Named New Exec. Director of USAction
From: Alan Charney <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 09:28:44 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Today, USAction is making a major announcement: longtime activist Fred
Azcarate, who founded Jobs with Justice in the 1990s and has been running
the jobs campaign effort at the AFL-CIO since 2007, will join USAction as
our new Executive Director. We couldn’t be more thrilled. At USAction, we
believe that winning our progressive agenda demands movements and
coalitions whose efforts are greater than the sum of their parts, and Fred
has spent his career bringing people together in pursuit of economic
justice for all.

Read more about the announcement made this morning in Huffington
Post<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/fred-azcarate-afl-cio-us-action_n_3282811.html?utm_hp_ref=politics>
.

We’d love for you to welcome Fred aboard by making this announcement a true
coalition effort. Here are a few things you could do:

   1. Blog about the announcement. (For background, read our press release
   below and here<http://usaction.org/2013/05/press-release-rising-progressive-leader-to-take-helm-at-usaction/>
   .)
   2. Facebook or Tweet a welcome message to Fred—wish him luck in the new
   endeavor. Check out facebook.com/USAction, @USAction
<https://twitter.com/usaction>
   and @FAzcarate <https://twitter.com/fazcarate> for updates or click here
   <http://clicktotweet.com/92bir>to tweet or copy and paste the text: *So
   excited for @usaction and its new ED, @fazcarate! Truly a rising star in
   the movement for econ justice. #welcomeFred*
   3. Share Fred’s
message<http://usaction.org/2013/05/meet-fred-azcarate-usactions-new-executive-director/>to
the USAction community- his vision going forward for USAction and our
   allies in the fight for economic justice.  Share our Facebook post with
   Fred’s message
here<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151460769448123&set=a.241581293122.141957.175886458122&type=1>
   .

Thanks again, and we look forward to working with you in the fights to come.

-Jeff/Alan/Khalid and the USAction team

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

Contact: Christy Setzer, New Heights Communications 202-506-6421 (cell)
[email-masked]

Thursday, May 16, 2013

*RISING PROGRESSIVE LEADER TO TAKE HELM AT USAction *

*Fred Azcarate, founding Exec Director of Jobs with Justice, former USSA
President to become new Exec Director of leading community organizing group*

*Hire represents strategic partnership between community organizing and
labor movements*

Washington, DC—USAction, a leading national community organizing network
with affiliates in 21 states and nearly 350,000 members nationwide,
announced today that Fred Azcarate, a rising star in the labor and
progressive movement, will take over as the organization’s new Executive
Director. Azcarate, the former Executive Director of Jobs with Justice and
President of the US Student Association, is currently the head of the
AFL-CIO’s jobs campaign asdirector of America Wants to Work. Last year,
Azcarate was named one of “50 Young Progressive Activists Who Are Changing
America” cited in the *Huffington *Post. The hire represents a significant
alignment between the community organizing and labor networks.

“Fred brings an unparalleled understanding of and commitment to community
organizing and feels to his core the issues that we fight for,” said *Khalid
Pitts, President of USAction and Director of Strategic Campaigns at the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)*. “Fred will be a tremendous
springboard to bring USAction into the future and to build on the important
work Jeff Blum started. We’re extremely excited to have him leading our
team, and building an even stronger bond between the labor and organizing
movements.”

USAction was founded in 1999 with a goal to engage national partners and
state affiliates in progressive campaigns that enrich people’s lives. Over
the years, USAction has fought to protect Social Security and Medicare from
privatization efforts, organized the second-largest nonpartisan voting
registration effort in history, fought for affordable, quality healthcare,
and campaigned to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes while
providing jobless benefits for the unemployed.  Currently, USAction and its
21 state affiliates employ a staff of 240 in 40 offices, has approximately
342,000 members, and a combined listserv capacity of 1.2 million
supporters. Azcarate replaces outgoing and founding Executive Director Jeff
Blum.

 “I am so excited to build on the phenomenal work that USAction affiliates
and national partners are doing every day, whether it’s to increase access
to health care, right-size the Pentagon so we can invest in America’s real
priorities, or create smart immigration reform policies,” said Azcarate.
“We’re at a critical moment, and I’m thrilled to help lead the fight for an
economy of opportunity and justice, to rebuild the middle class and ensure
that all have access to it. There’s a saying I like- ‘If you want to walk
fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together.’ Together we will
walk with our partners across the progressive movement to build an economy
that works for everyone.”

“As corporate interests step up their attacks on working people and the
middle class struggles to get ahead, the fight for jobs and economic
prosperity needs all the allies it can get,” said *Richard Trumka,
President of the AFL-CIO*. “I can think of no better ally than USAction
with Fred Azcarate at the helm. I’ve been working side by side with Fred
for the last six years to give working people a voice on the job, and a
future with economic security. His passion will be key to bringing the
labor and community organizing networks together to wage campaigns that
create good jobs, health care, and a secure retirement.”

Azcarate has been at the AFL-CIO since 2007, when he was hired to run the
AFL-CIO’s Voice@Work campaign, including the campaign to pass the Employee
Free Choice Act. From 1992 until 2007, Azcarate was the Executive Director
for Jobs with Justice, growing the organization from 3 staff to an
organization with 60 staff and representing more than 40 coalitions. Prior
to that, Azcarate served as President of the US Student Association.

“When labor unions and community organizers come together to fight for the
99 percent, everyone benefits,” said *Mary Kay Henry, SEIU’s International
President*. “By strengthening our partnership, we can create an economy
that addresses inequities and works better for all of us.”

“I’ve had the great privilege of working with both Fred and USAction for a
number of years,” said *Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of
America*. “USAction has played a critical role in bringing together the
progressive movement, and Fred is a great leader, who has led a growing
movement for democracy and economic justice. Together, they’re going to do
great things for all of us.”

Said Center for *Community Change Executive Director, Deepak Bhargava*,
“Last month, USAction and Center for Community Change created an historic
partnership between our two organizations, with the idea being that
progressivism demands movements and coalitions whose efforts are greater
than the sum of their parts. That’s exactly why Fred Azcarate is the
perfect person to lead USAction and our movement.”

Azcarate comes from a labor family-- his mother, a nurse, belonged to
SEIU1199 in New York. He graduated from SUNY-Binghamton with a Bachelor’s
degree in economics. Today, Azcarate lives in Takoma Park, MD with his wife
and two young sons.

#  #  #

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