Statement on the Death of the Former President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations George Meany

George Meany was an American institution. He changed the shape of our Nation for the better in hundreds of ways, great and small, through the force of his character and the integrity of his beliefs. His strengths were the strengths of the American labor movement—courage, practical idealism, compassion, and an unshakable commitment to human dignity and human rights.

Above all, George Meany was a patriot. He expressed his love for our country by fighting to make it a better place in which to work and live. He came out of the building trades, and in a lifetime of public leadership, he never stopped building. He left America a freer, stronger, more just society than he found it.

George Meany's enduring monument will be the united, free trade union movement he helped create and led so long and so well. But his vision of labor's role was a broad one, and his life's work also served millions throughout the world who never held a union card. He was an enemy of totalitarianism in all its forms, a fighter for social justice at home and abroad, and a friend of freedom everywhere.

George Meany was a counselor of Presidents, who never lost the common touch. Like seven of my predecessors, I was privileged to benefit from his straightforward counsel. Working men and women around the world will mourn his loss.

Pope John Paul II put it best at the White House just 3 months ago, when he clasped George Meany's hands and said simply, "You do good work for your people." We were all George Meany's people, and the good work he did will continue to serve us for a long time to come.