GREGORY FLOYD NAMED A LAUREATE OF WORLD PEACE PRIZE
First Teamster to Receive Prize of “Roving Ambassador for Peace”
General President O’Brien “applauds” selection
Capitol Hill—Monday, April 4, 2022—A Teamster trailblazer for over 35 years has been selected a Laureate of the World Peace Prize of “Roving Ambassador for Peace.”
New Yorker Gregory Floyd, President of Teamsters Local 237 and Teamsters International Vice President-At Large, as well as a Trustee of New York City’s Employees’ Retirement System, will receive the prize at a date and location to be later announced. Mr. Floyd is a well-respected Black labor leader, long acknowledged as a significant force in the City’s labor movement, especially among public sector workers. Teamsters Local 237
is the largest public sector Local within the IBT.
The announcement was made by Fr. Sean McManus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus/ Irish Peace Foundation, and Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize, which is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The World Peace Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Presbyterian Minister, Rev. Dr. Han Min Su, and consists of a panel of International and Inter-Faith judges (representing all nine major world religious groups).
Fr. Mc Manus said: “When we became involved with the World Peace Prize, we wanted to strongly make the point that working for peace, in fact, means working for justice all the time, day in day out, year after year. And what group in America better exemplifies this since the late 1880s?” The American Labor Movement/Organized Labor works for justice for working women and men. Therefore, the Labor Movement and its leaders ought to be seen as very suitable potential candidates for the World Peace Prize.
Fr. McManus further explained: “We took our vision to the late, great, and beloved Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO. He loved the idea, and enthusiastically wanted to help us launch it throughout the Labor Movement—symbolically doing so on February 3, 2016, at his own Washington AFL-CIO Headquarters by being the first Labor recipient of the World Peace Prize.”
President Floyd said: “It is a tremendous honor to receive the World Peace Prize. When I review the names of past recipients, I am humbled to be considered a member of such a prestigious group. It is with great pride that on behalf of Teamsters Local 237 and the entire International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I accept this award.”
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said: “On behalf of the 1.3 million members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters—as well as our General Executive Board—I want to congratulate Greg for receiving this award. We applaud this organization’s mission of connecting labor’s fight for justice with the fight for justice on many other fronts. Greg has been fighting on behalf of working families his entire life and is deserving of this honor.”
Fr. McManus warmly welcomed General President O’Brien’s praise for the selection of President Floyd as a World Peace Prize laureate. And he concluded: “I greatly appreciate General President O’Brien’s applauding the mission of the World Peace Prize and his seeing the importance of the connection we have made between Labor’s historic fight for justice and the building of World Peace—just as did the late, great, and beloved President Trumka. So, now, two of the most powerful Labor leaders in American history have applauded our mission. We have been deeply touched by how much the World Peace Prize means to the individual laureates and to their respective Unions and Locals.” END.
