Sonia Ramirez to Assume Post January 1

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Building and Construction Trades Department today announced that Sonia Ramirez, currently the Department's Deputy Director of Government Affairs, has been named as the new Director of Government Affairs.  The change will become effective January 1, 2013.

"The Building and Construction Trades Department is thrilled to have someone of Sonia's caliber leading our Government Affairs team," said BCTD President Sean McGarvey.  "With the talent, knowledge, expertise and character possessed by Sonia, I am fully confident that we will continue to exert a strong and effective presence on Capitol Hill for years to come."  

Ramirez has served as the Deputy Director of Government Affairs for the BCTD since May, 2010.  Prior to that, she served just over six years as a government relations representative for the AFL-CIO, where she served as the federation's chief immigration lobbyist.

Throughout her professional career, Sonia has been a resource to working families and the Latino community serving as a community advocate, political organizer, civil servant and government affairs representative.  Sonia is an alumnus of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) graduate fellowship program, and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in public policy.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the CHCI.

Sonia is a native Californian whose father, Liborio, was a 50 year member of Local 300 of the Laborers International Union of North America in Los Angeles.  Sonia attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and New School University in New York.

The Building and Construction Trades Department is an alliance of 13 national and international unions that collectively represent 2 million skilled craft workers in the United States and Canada

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SOURCE Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO