Labor Spotlight- Sheila Cochran

Sheila Cochran is a proud member of the United Auto Workers’ and has been since joining the UAW Local 438 in 1979.  She served her union for many years as an activist and officer and in many other various ways. She retired as the Chief Operating Officer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council in 2017, the largest Central Labor body in Wisconsin. She is the first African American female elected to this position. Mrs. Cochran is a trade unionist and community activist who diligently works on improving the lives of those that have no voice or choose not to use their voice.  Her personal philosophy is “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Mrs. Cochran has served and continues to serve a variety of organizations including the Milwaukee Fair Housing and Employment Commission, the Fair Lending Coalition, and the Milwaukee Jobs Initiative.  She served on the task force on Technical Education and Training and was an advisor on the Minimum Wage Advisory Council in 2004.  She serves on the boards of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP), Big Step, Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board and was involved in Workers’ Rights Board hearings held in Milwaukee.

Mrs. Cochran has proudly received the 2007 Black Excellence Award in Community Leadership and also in 2007 she received the “Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Keeper of the Flame Award,” from the National NAACP. In 2009 the Milwaukee Business Journal named Mrs. Cochran one of Milwaukee area’s 100 most influential people in its Power List.

Following her "retirement," Sheila stayed busy serving as Tammy Baldwin's Milwaukee Representative for her 2018 reelection campaign and then as Interim Executive Director for WRTP/BIG STEP.