GENERAL PRESIDENT FRANK J. CHRISTENSEN, IUEC, FIRST RECIPIENT OF THE RE-NAMED “RICHARD L. TRUMKA WORLD PEACE PRIZE FOR SOLIDARITY.”
CAPITOL HILL. Wednesday, October 12, 2022—The World Peace Prize has announced that General President Frank. J. Christensen, International Union of Elevator Constructors, will be the first Laureate of the “Richard L. Trumka World Peace Prize For Solidarity.”
The Presentation Ceremony will take place at his Maryland Headquarters, 7154 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD 21046— on a weekday from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM on a date to be soon announced.
His office will issue the invitations to this free event—not a fundraiser.
The announcement was made by Fr. Sean McManus, Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize and President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus/Irish Peace Foundation.
Fr. McManus explained: “The late, great President Trumka, God rest him, on February 3, 2016, at his AFL-CIO Headquarters, helped us to launch the World Peace Prize throughout the AFL-CIO and American Organized Labor—https://worldpeaceprizewashington.org/
He also had agreed to receive the World Peace Prize For Solidarity before his death. So, in loving memory, we have re-named the Solidarity Prize in his honor. In his memory, we also refer to Organized Labor as “Organized Love of Neighbor”—for without social justice there is no love of neighbor.
We hope, as long planned, that the Trumka Family will be posthumously presented at this event with the World Peace Prize for Solidarity (which President Trumka had agreed to receive).
The re-naming of the Solidarity Prize has been warmly welcomed by the Trumka Family:’’ “… We are honored that Rich’s name will live on, always linked with solidarity and peace because the World Peace Prize for Solidarity will be re-named in his honor…”
President Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO, said: “Rich Trumka’s contributions to peace and prosperity around the world were countless. He was a global ambassador for worker rights, economic justice, dignity, and respect for all human beings. I can think of no one more deserving of this honor.”
And International President Cecil E. Roberts, United Mine Workers of America, and life-long friend of President Trumka, said: “I wish that he were still with us to accept this award, but our memories of him remain and guide us to continue to work for peace in his absence.”
(President Roberts, as announced some time ago, had agreed to receive the re-named “Richard L. Trumka World Peace Prize for Solidarity” but he had to keep postponing it due to his overwhelming schedule and duties. He still hopes to receive the Prize sometime in the future, and in the meantime, he graciously gave his blessing for us to move ahead with our programs).
General President Christensen, himself, said: “I saw President Trumka not only as a great leader but also as a dear friend. I am profoundly honored and humbled to receive this Prize, which is also a great honor for the IUEC and for all working women and men. We will certainly do all in our power to ensure that President Trumka’s name, as the Trumka family puts it, ‘will live on, always linked with solidarity and peace because the World Peace Prize for Solidarity will be re-named in his honor…’ This is our sacred trust because connecting American Labor with the World Peace Prize is a key and integral part of President Trumka’s legacy to Labor and, indeed, to the world.”
Fr. Mc Manus concluded: “As Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize, let me add this: Both President Trumka and General President Christensen have shown profound and wholehearted understanding and appreciation of the World Peace Prize making an intrinsic link between Organized Labor and the World Peace Prize (which is the only Peace Prize to make this inherent connection). Such understanding and appreciation are an essential part of the criterion we use to select Laureates of the World Peace Prize.
Both President Trumka and President Christensen deeply believed with Saint Pope John Paul II that ‘peace is the fruit of solidarity.’
Faith must be ‘the faith that does justice” as all religions in the world must believe. And the wonderful thing about social justice—the heart and soul of our World Peace Prize—is that people of faith and people of no faith, but of goodwill, can fully agree that social justice is absolutely essential for any decent society and world. Without justice, there is no love.”
