West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword and Secretary-Treasurer Andy Walters were unanimously re-elected this week to four-year terms during the organization’s 31st Constitutional Convention in Charleston.

“I can’t describe how honored I am that West Virginia’s labor leaders continue to support my work as president of this great organization,” Sword said. “Unions and their members are on the front line, serving their local communities in many capacities every day, and because of that, lives are better for all workers and their families.”

Walters said he too is grateful to once again be chosen to carry on the WV AFL-CIO’s mission of advocating for worker rights.

“I appreciate the trust the membership has given me to lead, a responsibility I do not take lightly,” he said. “Our collective effort on job sites, in union meetings, and at the capitol makes a real difference, and I am excited to organize, recruit, and invest in the labor movement – and to double down on seeking labor friendly candidates all over the state who will end the decade-long war on working families here in West Virginia.”    

About 150 union members from roughly 80 local union affiliates representing over 30 international unions met Tuesday and Wednesday for the convention, which convenes every four years, and chose Sword and Walters to lead the federation, along with the 16 members of the WV AFL-CIO Executive Board.

The Vice Presidents of the WV AFL-CIO are: Peter Bostic, Workers United; Mike Caputo, UMWA; Joe Carter, UMWA; Steve Day, Teamsters; Dan Doyle, AFGE; John Epperly, IBEW; Joyce Gibson, SEIU; Elaine Harris, CWA; Jessie King, LIUNA; Dale Lee, Education WV; Chuck Parker, IUOE; Dan Poling, IUPAT; Karen Shipley, USW; Kristie Skidmore, Education WV; Gary Southall, UFCW; and Brian Wedge, USW.

“We are extremely thankful to have such a strong executive board that so broadly represents West Virginia’s working families,” Walters said. “These are some of the hardest working labor activists in the state.”

The delegates to the convention also adopted numerous position papers specifying federal, state and local issues important to working West Virginians, including: the need for the Legislature to require state agencies to purchase American-made products whenever possible; support of workforce development programs and apprenticeships; opposition to the privatization of government services, including public education and PEIA; ensuring affordable healthcare for all West Virginians; opposing the outsourcing of jobs; and enacting more worker protections in state policy.

Speakers at the event included Cecil Roberts, who recently retired after serving 30 years as President of the United Mine Workers of America, Jimmy Williams Jr., General President of International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Bob Brown (AFT), the longest serving vice president in the history of the WV AFL-CIO who is retiring from the position after 32 years, and Pat Maroney, General Counsel to the WV AFL-CIO since 1972.

Sword was first elected President of the West Virginia AFL-CIO at the 2017 Constitutional Convention and then re-elected in 2022. He previously served as Secretary-Treasurer of the State Federation from 2013 until his appointment as President in January 2017. Sword is a member of CWA and Laborers Local 1353.

Walters, a 23-year member of the International Painters Union and a former resident of Wheeling, was also first elected during the 2017 Constitutional Convention and re-elected in 2022. He had been business representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District 53 since 2014, and worked as a IUPAT Local 91 painter and drywall foreman for nearly 10 years prior.

“Since 1957, the West Virginia AFL-CIO has been advocating on behalf of workers and their families in the legislative, political, and civic arenas,” Sword noted. “Unions throughout West Virginia have continued to successfully organize, overcoming the many barriers the state Legislature has created for them. That proves two things: Unorganized workers remain thirsty for a collective voice in the workplace, and West Virginia is still very much a pro-union state.”