Art Pulaski

Art Pulaski, 51, is the executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO – www.calaborfed.org. The federation represents 2.1 million members of 1,300 manufacturing, service, retail, construction, public sector and private industry unions.

Since his election in 1996, Pulaski has reinvigorated California's unions by focusing on grassroots activism, recruiting new members and fighting for working people in the legislature.

Pulaski's legislative victories - the eight-hour day, the paid family leave law and the Health Insurance Act of 2003 - are a testament to the respect he has won for the labor movement in Sacramento.

Union leaders across the country praise Pulaski for building a political structure that wins campaigns. He has been a key strategist behind hundreds of elections at every level. In 1998, he led the fight to defeat Proposition 226, the attempt to weaken the labor movement. In 2002, he led the grassroots effort that resulted in a clean sweep of union-backed candidates for statewide office.

Pulaski's career in organized labor began at 16, when, as a stock boy in a supermarket, he joined the Amalgamated Meat Cutters. In 1980, he worked as a regional organizer for the Citizen Labor Energy Coalition. After working as a union representative for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 250 from 1982 to 1984, he was elected to lead the San Mateo Labor Council. From 1984 to 1996, Pulaski built that organization into an aggressive political operation that earned a reputation for reclaiming seats held by anti-union elected officials.

Pulaski graduated from Connecticut State University in 1974 with a degree in psychology and social work. He received his master's degree in community organization and social development in 1976 from the University of Minnesota.

Pulaski lives in San Francisco. He and his wife, Josie Mooney, a labor leader with SEIU Local 790, have three children.