New Orleans, LAFor more than 30 years, Captain Randy Babbitt, who has retired as president of the Air Line Pilots Association and as a vice president of the AFL-CIO, has served his union, his profession and the American labor movement with consummate dedication, experience and skill.
After becoming an Eastern Airlines pilot in 1966, Captain Babbitt began his career in the labor movement as an activist within his local pilots' council. In recognition of his leadership and ability, he rose to represent all Eastern pilots on ALPA's Contract Negotiating Committee, and, as one of the union's most accomplished negotiators, he chaired key bargaining activities within ALPA, including its National Collective Bargaining Committee and the union's Presidential Committee on Labor Standards. He joined ALPA's national staff in 1985 as the union's executive administrator and was elected to his first term as ALPA president in 1991. He was first elected as a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 1995, and he has served as a vice president of the Transportation Trades Department.
Captain Babbitt has been one of the nation's most respected and effective voices for the concerns of the professional airline pilots. He has led ALPA in bargaining for fair conditions, maximum air safety and the highest quality of service for airline passengers through the industry's most turbulent years of change and challenge to airline industry workers. He brought the same commitment to his service to the AFL-CIO where his valuable experience and good counsel fostered the unity of the labor movement and developed policies and strategies important to the rights of all workers to organize, bargain and win a better life for themselves and their families.
On behalf of the men and women of the unions of the AFL-CIO, the Executive Council expresses its gratitude and appreciation to Captain Babbitt for his lifelong commitment to the members of his union and to working families everywhere.