Gillian Furst: 1933 – 2015

For nearly four decades, Gillian Furst organized strategic meetings out of her living room, offering rank-and-file workers a safe haven from corporate oversight and a vision for the future of the labor movement.

She would gently lend her ear to every person in attendance, but could be a vigorous taskmaster while leading the charge for change, friends said. Furst, an international union, civil and women’s rights activist, was instrumental in founding the Minnesota chapter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), responsible for stomping out a wave of corruption across the Teamsters union and making sweeping reforms for workers’ rights. She died July 20, 2015 of an apparent stroke. She was 81.

Please join us for a celebration of Gillian’s life and work.