By Tom Schram

(UPDATED / JUNE 27, 2022) -- The Hall of Fame class to be inducted on September 15, 2022 (first announced for 2020 but delayed to this year due to COVID) is comprised of three individuals who made their marks through leadership in specific segments of the labor movement. Award-winning actor Ralph Bellamy was a key player in organizing both film and live-stage workers. Joyce Miller was a pioneering and strong advocate for women in the workforce. And Tom Turner used the might of the nascent civil rights movement of the 1960s to create equal opportunities for minority workers.

Ralph Bellamy (1904 – 1991)

In a career that spanned 62 years in film, television and stage, Bellamy distinguished himself not only as an actor, but as an advocate for performers both in and out of the public eye. He was a dedicated founder and prominent board member of the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles and he was president for a still-unprecedented four consecutive terms of Actors Equity in New York. At Actors Equity, he helped establish the first actors’ pension fund; and presided over the merger of Actors’ Equity and Chorus Equity and the unionization of Off-Broadway. In 1987, Bellamy received an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his body of work.

Joyce Miller (1928 – 2012)

As a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Miller was an early and enthusiastic advocate for women in the workplace. Miller was named education director for the Clothing Workers in 1962, and later became vice-president of that union. In that role, she was instrumental in establishing day care, college scholarship programs and legal assistance for members. In 1974, she helped found and eventually became president of CLUW. She became the first woman elected to the executive board of the AFL-CIO in 1980.

Tom Turner (1927-2011)

In 1968, Turner, a former steelworker and then-president of the Detroit NAACP, became the first black president of the Wayne County AFL-CIO. Using that position for leverage, and with the legal backing established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Turner was instrumental in significantly increasing membership for minorities in unionized skilled trade positions particularly in the automobile industry. He also established what became known as “The Detroit Plan” to use affirmative action to vastly expand journeyman opportunities for minority members in the Michigan building trades, setting precedents that would soon echo throughout the country. Turner served in the AFL-CIO position, marshaling its merger with Oakland and Macomb and creating the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, for 20 years until 1988. 

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The induction event will be held in at Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights Training Center located on 11687 American Avenue in Detroit on Thursday, September 15, 2022. A reception will be held beginning at 5 PM to be immediately followed by the Induction Ceremony beginning at 6 PM. 

For more information, or to purchase tickets for the September 15 event, contact Shawn D. Ellis at (313) 320-6964 or Dave Ivers at (313) 802-7777.