DPE President Paul E. Almeida testifies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Paul E. Almeida
DPE President
On February 1, 2001, Paul E. Almeida was elected President of the Department for Professional Employees (DPE), AFL-CIO by acclamation of the DPE General Board to fill the remainder of an unexpired term. He was then re-elected at the DPE General Board meetings in 2001, 2005, and 2009.
Prior to DPE, Almeida was President of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), AFL-CIO & CLC. He was first elected to this national union position in 1994 and re-elected 1997 and 2000.
During the last four years of his tenure as IFPTE president, the union was the fastest growing organization in the AFL-CIO increasing in size from 23,000 to over 40,000–a 75% increase in membership. As president in 1999, Almeida helped facilitate the affiliation of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace that brought 10,000 new members to IFPTE with a potential for many more. In 2000 he was one of the leaders of the longest strike, lasting nearly six weeks, by Boeing engineers. This job action was one of the largest strikes by professional workers in the nation’s history.
Almeida received his degree in engineering from Franklin Institute of Boston and was employed by Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston from 1971 – 1994. During that time, he worked as a Senior Electrical Designer, and was IFPTE’s Local 105 Divisional President until 1994.
As a local and national union leader, Almeida has been involved in all aspects of representational work, including chairing private sector negotiating committees and as labor’s panel member on a tripartite, interest-based arbitration panel that mediated contract disputes affecting public sector unions in the State of Connecticut.
Almeida currently serves on several policy committees of the AFL-CIO, including: Vice Chair of the immigration committee; and member of the education and training; legislative/public policy; international affairs; organizing; strategic approaches; and women workers committee. Almeida is a board member of the Albert Shanker Institute, the Council for Adult & Experiential Learning, the Labor Advisory Board of American Income Life, past board member of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, and past member of the Labor Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations and Trade Policy to the U.S. Trade Representative.
Almeida and his wife reside in Arlington, MA. He has two children and three grandchildren.
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David Cohen
Executive Director
David joined the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) in 2002 and became its Executive Director in 2006. He works with the DPE officers, staff, and affiliated unions to identify common objectives for action and leads collaboration on public policy, labor issues, and outreach to professional associations.
David graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and received a Shaw Travelling Fellowship to study schools in four European cities. He clerked for a federal judge in Massachusetts, joined a Washington, DC law firm, and became a name partner. He has appeared on CNN, spoken on radio, served as a speaker or facilitator in many venues, and written for The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, Harvard Magazine and Perspectives on Work. He co-edited the 1997 edition of Construction Organizing: An Organizing and Contract Enforcement Guide.
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Jennifer Dorning
Researcher and Representative
Jennifer’s background includes more than two years of criminal and civil litigation and five years of Oregon state and local politics. She worked in the Oregon State Legislature as well as on political campaigns. Jennifer graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington in 2008 and from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon in 2000. Jennifer joined DPE in 2010.