Stanley A. Gacek

Stanley Gacek

"AFL-CIO President John Sweeney named Stanley A. Gacek Assistant Director for International Affairs in February 1997. Gacek is responsible for the US labor federation's relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He has played a key and fundamental role in developing a more progressive North American trade union presence in the Western Hemisphere during the post-Cold War period. He helped appoint and manage an entirely new AFL-CIO-International Solidarity Center staff for the Americas region.

"During the 1980's and 1990's, Gacek served as the effective contact in the US labor movement for both the Brazilian PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores – Workers Party) and the Brazilian CUT (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores). He has been a close friend and adviser to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and to the Brazilian PT for 24 years.

"He is a recognized observer of Latin American labor and politics, having published and spoken widely on the subject. His comparative analysis of the US and Brazilian labor law systems was published as a law review article in the United States, entitled "Revisiting the Corporatist and Contractualist Models of Labor Law Regimes: A Review of the Brazilian and American Systems", 16 Cardozo Law Review 1, August, 1994. His work was also published as a book in Brazil, entitled Sistemas de Relações de Trabalho — Exame dos Modelos Brasil-Estados Unidos, Editora Ltr, São Paulo, 1994. Dissent Magazine recently published his article, "New Hope for Brazil?" at http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=501. "

• Coordinating Committee (CoChair), Brazil Strategy Network