FLORIDA AFL-CIO CONVENTION IN SAINT PETERSBURG BEACH A GREAT SUCCESS STORY!

West Central Florida Federation of Labor, Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO hosted the 2007 Florida AFL-CIO Biennial State Convention at the fantastic Tradewinds Island Resort, 5500 Gulf Blvd., Saint Petersburg Beach, FL 33706 from Sun., Sept. 30 through Wed., Oct. 3, 2007 with a great deal of success. One of the highlights of the 285 registered members and guests Convention was the nomination and unanimous election of APWU of Florida President Martha Shunn-King as APWU Union Vice President with over 5,000 APWU paid membership in the Florida AFL-CIO.

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Other APWU Delegates attending the 3-day Convention: John Pruitt, President, North Central Florida Area Local; Stephen Stokes, Sarasota Local; Dave Bernstein, Tampa Area Local; and Sam Wood, President, Southwest Florida Area Local.
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Brother Jack Gose, President of APWU of Florida State Retiree Chapter and Vice President of Florida Alliance for Retired Americans 220,000 membership, 22 different AFL-CIO unions and over 100 community based organizations coalition group, was asked to give the invocation to open the Florida AFL-CIO Convention ceremonies on Mon., Oct. 1, 2007. The below All Faiths invocation he gave is appropriate and timely for the age we live in:
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O God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection.
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O God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept you, and we thank you, and we adore you, and we love you with our whole being, because our being is your being, our spirit is rooted in your spirit.
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Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together at this Florida AFL-CIO Convention with love and as we go our diverse ways after this Convention, united in this one spirit which makes you present in the world, and which makes you witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love shall overcome. Love is victorious!
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Lord God, make us an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; and Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive--- It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life! AMEN.

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