2013 Profiles in Courage - Virginia Diamond, Special Advisor to the President of the UAW and Special Counsel to the Virginia AFL-CIO
Virginia Diamond served from 1994 to December 2011 as the labor representative on the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission. For six years she was chair of the Commission.
Prior to her service at the Commission, she worked as advisor/counsel to the Clothing and Textile Workers Union, the Amalgamated Bank, the United Steelworkers of America, the Virginia AFL-CIO, the Free Trade Union Institute, and the Service Employees International Union.
Virginia began her work in the labor movement as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in Virginia and North Carolina. She subsequently served as Assistant Dirctor of the Organizing Department of the national AFL-CIO.
Virginia has taught courses on organizing and labor law at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD. She is the author of “Organizing Guide for Local Unions,” “Numbers that Count: Guide for Internal Organizing,” “Labor Law Handbook,” “Organizing White Collar Workers,” and “Central Labor Council Handbook.”
She did her undergraduate work at Yale College and the University of Paris. Her postgraduate work was done at Columbia University and Cambridge University, England. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was on the Editorial Board of the Law Review.
Virginia is currently Special Advisor to the President of the United Auto Workers union and Special Counsel to the Virginia AFL-CIO. She is Of Counsel with Ashcraft and Gerel.