in 2007, i was appointed by john sweeney to serve up linda chavez thompson's term when she decided totep down from her position. i served in that position. it was in 2009 32013 that i served alongside rich trumka as his executive vice president. during that period of time history was made because so many things are happening in the country, particularly the electionf back obama. we were pushing fo that. burich trua understood you couldot be silent. you could not be silent when it came to race. and his boldness and he stepped out and he spoke to a convention in 2008 and put it all on the line a said if you are not willing to vote for this man who certainly has supported workers rights and everything we believe in, it can only be chalked up to racism. the boldness, the willingness to speak tru to power the matter where was, and speak truth to our union. the other piece of this that's important is that rich understood the diversity of the labor movement had to be reflected and muste reflective of our membership. women and ung people and people of color. also when the team was liz schumer