Steve Knott, ILA Secretary-Treasurer, will be honored this Saturday, October 29th alongside Laurel Brennan and Sherryl Gordon-Hall. They will be honored by the ILA’s Alexander Talmadge – Edward L. Brown Sr. Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Committee.
NORTH BERGEN, NJ – Steven Knott, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshoremen’s Association and a prominent ILA leader in the Port of Newark, New Jersey for decades, will receive the “ILA Civil Rights Award” from his sister and brother union members of the ILA’s Alexander Talmadge — Edward L. Brown, Sr. Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Committee Awards Dinner. The dinner will be held at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel in Newark, New Jersey beginning at 6 pm this Saturday, October 29, 2016. Laurel Brennan, Secretary-Treasurer of New Jersey State AFL-CIO will also be honored with the “Labor Award” and Sherryl Gordon-Hall, Executive Director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees’, Council 1, will receive the “Humanitarian Award.”
“Steve Knott has dedicated his entire ILA career championing the rights of ILA members, and is a most worthy recipient of our ILA Civil Rights Award,” said Jerry Owens, Chairman of the ILA’s Civil Rights Committee. “Steve Knott has promoted diversity in the ILA workplace and has supported and participated in many Civil Rights programs and organizations.” A 50-year veteran of the ILA and the former President of the ILA’s Atlantic Coast District and ILA Local 1 in Newark, Knott has been previously honored by the Essex and Union County, New Jersey chapters of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and the United Negro College Fund.
Laurel Brennan is one of this nation’s leading labor women who developed and organized the New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s annual Women in Leadership Development Conference. Brennan’s labor career began with the New Jersey State Federation of Teachers and she also served as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (now known as Workers United).
Sherryl Gordon-Hall, Executive Director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 1, has successfully maintained AFSCME’s position as a leading union in the labor movement. She has guided AFSCME’s political and legislative agenda.
This year marks the fourth year the ILA’s Alexander Talmadge – Edward L. Brown, Sr.’s Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Committee has awarded Civil Rights Honors. The organization is named for two Civil Rights Champions from the ILA – Edward L. Brown, a one-time International and Atlantic Coast District Vice President and Alexander Talmadge, a former ILA Assistant General Organizer.
At its first Civil Rights dinner in 2013, ILA President Harold J. Daggett was honored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, the port city where former ILA leader and Civil Rights Committee chairman Edward L. Brown, Sr. was born and raised.
In 2014, current ILA Executive Vice President Dennis A. Daggett was honored at a dinner in Alexander Talmadge’s native city of Philadelphia.
Last year, the ILA’s Civil Rights dinner moved to Houston, Texas where the committee honored ILA Executive Vice President Emeritus Benny Holland, Jr., and International Vice President and former President of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District, Clyde Fitzgerald.
Now Steve Knott, along with Laurel Brennan and Sherryl Gordon-Hall, will be honored in Newark, New Jersey, home of the ILA’s largest port area.
Tickets are still available for Saturday’s ILA Civil Rights Committee Dinner. Contact Mary Ann Gillespie of the ILA at 212-425-1200 or [email protected] to make reservations.