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In Memoriam

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy

February 22, 1932-August 25, 2009

With the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), working families lost a champion of fairness at work, justice throughout American society and a progressive role for the U.S. in world affairs.

In a U.S. Senate career that covered 47 years, Ted Kennedy applied his unique political skills to pass landmark legislation that improved the lives of millions of Americans and improved our nation’s standing in the world.

Sen. Kennedy’s lifelong mission to improving health care is permanently inscribed in legislative accomplishments from the National Cancer Act to the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Recognized for his ability to work across party lines, Ted Kennedy traveled to Moscow with the support of President Ronald Reagan to press for arms control. He was also outspoken in his opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
Ted Kennedy’s passion for workers’ rights made him a leading supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act and a stalwart advocate for increasing the minimum wage.
“It is shameful,” said Kennedy in 2005, “that in America today, the richest most powerful nation on Earth, nearly one-fifth of all children go to bed hungry because their parents are working full time at the minimum wage and still cannot make ends meet.”
“Sen. Kennedy’s commitment to working families could never be seriously questioned by either his friends or his adversaries,” says International President Edwin D. Hill.  “That sincerity allowed him to reach across party lines and to truly put the future of our nation first.”

In this hour, when our nation debates the merits of healthcare reform, says Hill, “We need to summon up Ted Kennedy’s courage to do what is right, despite the controversy that may entail.”