CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Organized labor will pay tribute to retiring U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller Friday. The West Virginia AFL-CIO will present Rockefeller with a Lifetime Achievement award during a special convention to prepare for election season.

“We’ve been fortunate to have had friends like Senator Rockefeller,” said West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue. “He’s given so much, not only to labor, but to the state of West Virginia we just want to say,’Thank-you.'”

Kenny Perdue was re-elected to serve a third, four-year term as the president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO at the group's convention in Charleston recently.

The WV AFL-CIO, formed in 1957, is the state's largest labor organization with 575 affiliated unions and nearly 80,000 members. The organization spearheads much of the political and ideological agenda for the labor movement in West Virginia.