Just after finishing his third and final term as president of a union organization representing 740,000 communications workers, a labor leader announced Friday he was endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.

Larry Cohen, outgoing president of Communications Workers of America, announced his endorsement of Sanders at a news conference in a Council Bluffs, Iowa, union hall, where he and Sanders were joined by members of more than 80 labor organizations.

Also, more than 1,000 union leaders and members recently launched a network that serves as a diverse, grassroots initiative to support Sanders’ campaign called Labor for Bernie 2016, according to a news release.

“This is a guy who for his entire life has been there for working people,” Cohen said in the news release.

During Sanders’ May 26 campaign kickoff in Burlington, Mike O’Day, vice president of the local Vermont chapter of Communications Workers for America, brought up Sanders’ concern for the workers’ well-being during the recent FairPoint Communications strike.

In his rally speech, O’Day said that Sanders asked to host a Thanksgiving dinner for strikers and their families in Vermont.

“He wanted to make sure that everyone had a great holiday meal,” O’Day said. “There were 200 of us at Burlington High School that night. Bernie met with every family and let us know that he supported our decision to strike and would help us in any way he could.”

The Vermont National Education Association, the state’s largest union with over 12,000 members, also announced their endorsement of Sanders on June 24. The South Carolina chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations passed a resolution supporting Sanders, according to a June 13 news release.