Labor leader is back for 13th term

It's not that Terry Moore needed a lucky number to win a 13th term in office.

The longtime president of the Omaha Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, re-elected again this week, was unopposed in his bid to continue a 36-year reign. In fact, he said, he hasn't faced a challenger since first elected to the post in 1976.

"I don't know we'll ever find anybody who will put that kind of time and effort into our world again," said John Bourne, a labor official who represents construction and railroad workers.

Bourne likened Moore to a thick book of knowledge. He said others could do the president's job, but their institutional understanding of the system and players couldn't compare. "It would be an awfully short book."

At 69, Moore is the nation's longest-serving president of a central labor union body. He represents 37 local labor unions in Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Burt and Washington Counties.

Faced with a national membership decline in private sector unions, Moore said he foresees better times if President Barack Obama succeeds in returning previously outsourced jobs to the U.S. Once the workers come, he said, labor organizers can work to beef up numbers.

"They're starting to come back," Moore said. "I think you're going to see an impressive close at the end of 2012 and in 2013."

Meanwhile, on the local front, Moore vowed to work with the business community in supporting laws and incentives that would lure those returning industries to Nebraska.

An Omaha native who graduated from Omaha South High, Moore has seen many changes in the labor market since he was a young packing plant worker and about half of metro jobs were related to the meatpacking industry.

Among his proudest accomplishments, he said, is helping to open the first Omaha food bank, the area's first family shelter and organizing the restoration of an old mansion into a refuge where families of medical patients could stay for cheap.

More recently, he pushed for the Salvation Army Kroc Center in the impoverished neighborhood where he grew up. Moore did that as a member of the Salvation Army board. Such social service organizations, he said, have goals similar to unions.

"A major part of my job is to look out for the social and economic well-being of our membership," Moore said. "To work for a better standard of living, you've got to look out for social justice."

Among the other boards Moore sits on are the United Way of the Midlands since 1976, Aksarben Future Trust Board, Lasting Hope Recovery Center and Healthy Omaha.

Moore will enter his 70s during the three-year term to which he was elected Wednesday. He calls the job a "dream" that puts him in the position to help "future generations, minorities, the downtrodden" and at the same time partner with corporate titans working to build the community.

The father of four adult children, Moore gave no hint of slowing.

"As long as God gives me the strength, drive and determination," he said, "I am going to do this."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

« Money

Share