AFT Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus Nat LaCour was inducted into the Louisiana AFL-CIO Hall of Fame during the AFL-CIO convention Monday. Pictured at the induction ceremony are, from left, Louisiana AFL-CIO President Louis Reine, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan and Nat LaCour.
(Baton Rouge – March 24, 2009) Longtime labor leader and education advocate Nat LaCour was inducted into the Louisiana AFL-CIO Labor Hall of Fame in a ceremony Monday night at the AFL-CIO’s annual convention at the Baton Rouge Hilton Capitol Center.
As president of the United Teachers of New Orleans, LaCour led his union in a series of job actions in 1974 that resulted in UTNO winning the first collective bargaining agreement for educators in the Deep South.
LaCour was a founding member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and was appointed to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars by President Bill Clinton. He has served as a member of the Louisiana State Democratic Central Committee, the National Democratic Institute, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and as a delegate to six National Democratic Conventions.
Moving from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., LaCour was elected Executive Vice President and then Secretary-Treasurer of the 1.4 million member American Federation of Teachers. He currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the AFT.