CFL’s Don Villar Speaking September 18

The Historic Pullman Foundation (HPF) is hosting Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary –Treas-urer and ILHS board member on September 18, 4p.m., part of their on-going speakers’ series.

Villar will speak on “Filipinos and Pullman.”  As African-American Pullman Porters began organizing in 1925, the Pullman Company brought in Filipinos as possible strike-breakers. Instead, the Filipino workers joined in solidarity with the Porters and stymied the Pullman Company.

Villar is a labor activist, an Emmy award-winning former broadcast news journalist, and civil rights attorney. Villar is the current Secretary-Treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL). He was elected to the post in 2018. Prior to his election to the CFL, Villar was President of NABET-CWA Local 41. He was elected as Local 41 President in 2015, representing broadcast TV workers across Chicago. For nearly 25 years, Villar was a news writer/producer at WLS-TV/ABC7 covering local, state, national, and international stories that impacted the people across Chicago. While working full-time in television news and moving up the ranks of leadership at his Union,

Villar also began studies at Loyola University of Chicago Law School in 2008. Villar received his Bachelor of Liberal Arts & Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Tickets are $10 for the talk, free to HPF members.  For tickets, go to: https://tinyurl.com/3mw2ha6x

At HPF’s Exhibit Hall, the Railroaders photography exhibit continues through December 31. 

During World War II, Office of War Information photographer Jack Delano was sent to Chicago to capture everyday railroad workers aiding the war effort.  These stunning “on the job” portraits reveal the subject’s working class commitment to the Homefront effort.  The Exhibit Hall is open Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.—3 p.m. at 11141 S. Cottage Grove Ave.  Admission is $10, free to HPF members.  It will be open on Labor Day.