George Meany
Encyclopedia
William George Meany led labor union federations in the United States. As an officer of the American Federation of Labor
, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board
during World War II
.
Meany served as President of the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) from 1952 to 1955. As President of the AFL, he proposed in 1952 and managed in 1955 its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO). He served as President of the combined AFL-CIO
from 1955 to 1979. Meany had a reputation for personal integrity, opposition to corruption and anti-communism. George Meany was called the "most nationally recognized labor leader in the country for the more than two decades spanning the middle of the 20th century."
in New York City
on August 16, 1894. His parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent. His ancestors had immigrated to the United States in the 1850s. His father, Michael Meany was a plumber and a "staunch trade unionist" who served as president of his plumber's union local. That union had been formed in 1889. Michael Meany was also a precinct level activist in the Democratic Party
.
He grew up in the the Port Morris
neighborhood of The Bronx
, where his parents had moved when he was five years old. Always called "George", he did not know that his real first name was William until he got a work permit as a teenager. Following in his father's footsteps, Meany quit high school at the age of 16, served a five year apprenticeship as a plumber, and got his journeyman's certificate in 1917 with Local 463 United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters of the United States and Canada
.
Michael Meany died suddenly of a heart attack in 1916 after a bout of pneumonia. When George Meany's older brother joined the United States Army
in 1917, he became the sole support for his mother and six younger children. He supplemented his income for a while by playing as a semi-professional baseball catcher.
In 1919, he married Eugenia McMahon, a garment worker and a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. They had three daughters.
along with David Dubinsky
and Sidney Hillman
, as a vehicle to organize support for the re-election that year of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and mayor Fiorello La Guardia among Socialists in the union movement.
Three years later, he moved to to Washington, DC to become national secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor
. where he served under AFL president William Green
.
During World War II
, he was one of the permanent representatives of the AFL to the National War Labor Board.. During the war, he established close ties to prominent anti-communists in the U.S. labor movement, including David Dubinsky
, Jay Lovestone
and Matthew Woll
. In 1945, he led the AFL boycott of the World Federation of Trade Unions
, which welcomed participation by communist labor groups from the Soviet Union
.
When William Green's health declined in 1951, Meany gradually took over day-to-day operations of the AFL. He became president of the American Federation of Labor in 1952 upon the Green's death., which occurred just 12 days after the death of Congress of Industrial Organizations
president Philip Murray
. Meany immediately advocated the merger of the two rival U.S. labor federations. Walter Reuther
of the United Auto Workers
became president of the CIO, and he too supported a merger.
Meany took firm control of the AFL immediately upon being elected president, but it took a bit longer for Walter Reuther
to solidify his control of the CIO. Reuther was a willing partner in the merger negotiations. It took Meany three years to negotiate the merger, and he had to overcome significant opposition. John L. Lewis
of the United Mine Workers
called the merger a "rope of sand", and his union refused to join the AFL-CIO. Jimmy Hoffa
, then second in command of the Teamster's Union, protested, "What's in it for us? Nothing!", but the Teamsters went along with the merger initially. Mike Quill
of the Transport Workers Union of America
also fought the merger, saying that it amounted to a capitulation to the "racism, racketeering and raiding" of the AFL.
Meany's efforts came to fruition in December, 1955 with a joint convention in New York City that merged the two federations, creating the AFL-CIO
. The new federation had 15 million members, while two milllion U.S. workers were members of unions outside the AFL-CIO.
under the leadership of Dave Beck
led Meany to begin an anti-corruption drive in 1956. In 1957, in the midst of a fight for control of the union with Jimmy Hoffa
, Beck was called before the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
, commonly called the "McClellan Committee" after its chairman John L. McClellan
of Arkansas
. Robert F. Kennedy
was chief counsel of the committee.
Televised hearings in early 1957 exposed misconduct by both the Beck and the Hoffa factions of the Teamsters Union. Both Hoffa and Beck were indicted, but Hoffa won the battle for control of the Teamsters. In response, the AFL-CIO instituted a policy that no union official who had taken the Fifth Amendment
during a corruption investigation could continue in a leadership position. Meany told the Teamsters that they could continue as members of the AFL-CIO if Hoffa resigned as president. Hoffa refused, and the Teamsters were ousted from the AFL-CIO on December 6, 1957. Meany supported the AFL-CIO's adoption of a code of ethics in the wake of the scandal.
reforms advocated by President Lyndon B. Johnson
, Meany and the AFL-CIO in 1965 endorsed a resolution calling for "mandatory congressional price hearings for corporations, a technological clearinghouse, and a national planning agency". U.S. Democratic Socialist leader Michael Harrington
wrote that the AFL-CIO had "initiated a programmatic redefinition that had much more in common with the defeated socialist proposal of 1894 than with the voluntarism of Gompers" referring to Samuel Gompers
, the founder of the AFL, who had openly opposed socialism for decades. The 1965 resolution was part of the AFL-CIO's ongoing support for industrial democracy
.
's policy in the Vietnam War
. He criticized those labor leaders, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers, who called for the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Vietnam, a policy that he predicted would lead to a communist victory in South Vietnam and the destruction of its free trade-unions.
A 1966 article in the Miami News stated that Meany demanded that unions give "unqualified support" to Johnson's war policy. Critics opposing Meany and the war included Ralph Helstein
of the United Packinghouse Workers of America
, George Burdon of the United Rubberworkers and Patrick Gorman of the United Auto Workers.
Charles Cogen, president of the American Federation of Teachers
opposed Meany in 1967 when the AFL-CIO convention adopted a resolution "we pledge the continued support of American labor in Vietnam". Walter Reuther stated that he was busy with negotiations with General Motors in Detroit, and could not attend the convention. "Sniping" at Meany, Reuther issued "demands" "to make the AFL-CIO more 'democratic'". In his speech to the convention, Meany said that, in Vietnam the AFL-CIO was "neither hawk nor dove nor chicken", but was supporting "brother trade unionists" struggling against Communism.
Meany's support for Vietnam continued even in the final days before Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in April, 1975. He called for President Ford, if needed, to provide a U.S. Navy "flotilla" to ensure that hundreds of thousands of "friends of the United States" could escape before a Communist regime could be established. He called for rescue of refugees from Vietnam. He also appealed for the admission of the maximum possible number of Vietnamese refugees to the United States. Meany blamed Congress for "washing its hands" of the war and so "undercut[ting]" South Vietnam's military forces, damaging their "will to fight"; in particular, Congress had failed to provide adequate funding for U.S. troops to stage an orderly withdrawal, Meany stated.
In 1963, Meany and Reuther disagreed about the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
. In an AFL-CIO executive council meeting on August 12, Reuther's motion for a strong endorsement of the march was supported only by A. Philip Randolph
of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
, whose was the titular leader of the march. The AFL-CIO endorsed a civil-rights law and allowed individual unions to endorse the march. However, when George Meany heard A. Philip Randolph
's speech, he was visibly moved. Thereafter, he supported the creation of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
, to strengthen labor-unions among African Americans and to strengthen ties with the African American community.
Reuther resigned from the AFL-CIO executive council in February of 1967. In 1968, Reuther led the UAW out of the AFL-CIO, and the UAW did not re-affiliate until after Reuther's death in a 1970 plane crash.
, which from the start had criticized the labor movement for conservatism, racism, and anti-communism and which in the late 1960s and early 1970s had many supporters of Communist movements, such as the Viet Cong. He criticized the New Left and the New Politics
of George McGovern for elitism. A cultural conservative, Meany ridiculed a proposal of same-sex marriage
.
Meany opposed the anti-war candidacy of U. S. Senator George McGovern
for the Presidency against incumbent Richard Nixon
in 1972, despite McGovern's generally pro-labor voting record in Congress. He also declined to endorse Nixon. On Face the Nation
in September 1972, Meany criticized McGovern's statements that the U.S. should respect other peoples' rights to choose communism, because there had never been a country that had voted for communism; he accused McGovern of being "an apologist for the Communist world". Following Nixon's landslide defeat of McGovern, Meany said that the American people had "overwhelmingly repudiated neo-isolationism" in foreign policy. Meany pointed out that the American voters split their votes
by voting for Democrats in Congress. According to Meany, class resentment was a major reason that Nixon won 49 states against McGovern, despite the dislike of the Vietnam War by a majority of American voters.
re-established the Presidential Medal of Freedom
on February 22, 1963. Two weeks after Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson
awarded it to Meany and 30 others on December 6, 1963. In granting the award, President Johnson said of Meany, "Citizen and national leader, in serving the cause of labor, he has greatly served the cause of his Nation and of freedom throughout the world."
Meany was well-known as a cigar smoker, and appeared twice on the cover of TIME
magazine with a cigar in his mouth. Meany stated that he had never walked a picket line, explaining that his union never needed to form a picket line,
because the employers made no attempt to replace the workers.
Meany's wife of 59 years, Eugenia, died in March of 1979, and he became ""despondent". He injured his knee in a golfing mishap a few months before his death, and was confined to a wheelchair. In November, 1979, he resigned from the AFL-CIO after a 57 year career in organized labor. He was succeeded by Lane Kirkland
, who served as AFL-CIO president for 16 years.
Meany died at George Washington University Hospital
on January 10, 1980. The AFL-CIO had 14 million members at time of death. President Jimmy Carter
called him "an American institution" and "a patriot".
in 1974; the Center was renamed the National Labor College
-George Meany Campus in 2004. The Meany Campus has housed the George Meany Memorial Archives, which holds all of the AFL-CIO records going back to the founding of the AFL in 1881, since 1987.
In 1994, Meany was pictured on a United States commemorative postage stamp
, which was issued on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board
National War Labor Board
The National War Labor Board was a federal agency created in April 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson. It was composed of twelve representatives from business and labor, and co-chaired by Former President William Howard Taft. Its purpose was to arbitrate disputes between workers and employers in...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Meany served as President of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) from 1952 to 1955. As President of the AFL, he proposed in 1952 and managed in 1955 its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
(CIO). He served as President of the combined AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
from 1955 to 1979. Meany had a reputation for personal integrity, opposition to corruption and anti-communism. George Meany was called the "most nationally recognized labor leader in the country for the more than two decades spanning the middle of the 20th century."
Early years
Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on August 16, 1894. His parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent. His ancestors had immigrated to the United States in the 1850s. His father, Michael Meany was a plumber and a "staunch trade unionist" who served as president of his plumber's union local. That union had been formed in 1889. Michael Meany was also a precinct level activist in the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
He grew up in the the Port Morris
Port Morris, Bronx
Port Morris is a neighborhood in the southwest Bronx, New York City. It is a heavily industrial neighborhood. Its boundaries are the Major Deegan Expressway and Bruckner Expressway to the north, East 149th Street to the east, the East River to the southeast, the Bronx Kill south, and the Harlem...
neighborhood of The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, where his parents had moved when he was five years old. Always called "George", he did not know that his real first name was William until he got a work permit as a teenager. Following in his father's footsteps, Meany quit high school at the age of 16, served a five year apprenticeship as a plumber, and got his journeyman's certificate in 1917 with Local 463 United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters of the United States and Canada
United Association
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, commonly known as the United Association is a trade union of journeymen and apprentices of the plumbing, pipefitting, and sprinkler fitting industry of...
.
Michael Meany died suddenly of a heart attack in 1916 after a bout of pneumonia. When George Meany's older brother joined the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1917, he became the sole support for his mother and six younger children. He supplemented his income for a while by playing as a semi-professional baseball catcher.
In 1919, he married Eugenia McMahon, a garment worker and a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. They had three daughters.
Rise in union leadership
In 1920, Meany was elected to the executive board of Local 463. In 1922, he became a full time business agent of the local, which had 3,600 members at that time. In 1923, he was elected secretary of the New York City Building Trades Council. He won a court injunction against a lockout in 1927, which was then considered an innovative tactic for a union. In 1934, he became president of the New York State Federation of Labor. He developed a reputation for honesty, diligence and the ability to testify effectively before legislative hearings and speak clearly to the press. In 1936, he co-founded the American Labor PartyAmerican Labor Party
The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...
along with David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky was an American labor leader...
and Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman was an American labor leader. Head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.-Early years:Sidney Hillman was...
, as a vehicle to organize support for the re-election that year of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and mayor Fiorello La Guardia among Socialists in the union movement.
Three years later, he moved to to Washington, DC to become national secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
. where he served under AFL president William Green
William Green
William Green may refer to:*S. William Green , former U.S. congressman from New York*William Ellis Green , Australian cartoonist*William Green , American football player...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was one of the permanent representatives of the AFL to the National War Labor Board.. During the war, he established close ties to prominent anti-communists in the U.S. labor movement, including David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky was an American labor leader...
, Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
and Matthew Woll
Matthew Woll
Matthew Woll was president of the International Photo-Engravers Union of North America from 1906 to 1929, an American Federation of Labor vice president from 1919 to 1955 and an AFL-CIO vice president from 1955 to 1956.-Early life:Born in Luxembourg in 1880 to Michael and Janette Woll, the Roman...
. In 1945, he led the AFL boycott of the World Federation of Trade Unions
World Federation of Trade Unions
The World Federation of Trade Unions was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations...
, which welcomed participation by communist labor groups from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
When William Green's health declined in 1951, Meany gradually took over day-to-day operations of the AFL. He became president of the American Federation of Labor in 1952 upon the Green's death., which occurred just 12 days after the death of Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
president Philip Murray
Philip Murray
Philip Murray was a Scottish born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee , the first president of the United Steelworkers of America , and the longest-serving president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations .-Early...
. Meany immediately advocated the merger of the two rival U.S. labor federations. Walter Reuther
Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
of the United Auto Workers
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
became president of the CIO, and he too supported a merger.
Merger of the AFL and the CIO
Meany's "first official act" after becoming head of the AFL in 1952 was to put forward a proposal to merge with the CIO.Meany took firm control of the AFL immediately upon being elected president, but it took a bit longer for Walter Reuther
Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
to solidify his control of the CIO. Reuther was a willing partner in the merger negotiations. It took Meany three years to negotiate the merger, and he had to overcome significant opposition. John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...
of the United Mine Workers
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...
called the merger a "rope of sand", and his union refused to join the AFL-CIO. Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....
, then second in command of the Teamster's Union, protested, "What's in it for us? Nothing!", but the Teamsters went along with the merger initially. Mike Quill
Mike Quill
Michael J. Quill was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America , a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in other forms of transit, and the President of the TWU for most of the first thirty years of its existence...
of the Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100,...
also fought the merger, saying that it amounted to a capitulation to the "racism, racketeering and raiding" of the AFL.
Meany's efforts came to fruition in December, 1955 with a joint convention in New York City that merged the two federations, creating the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
. The new federation had 15 million members, while two milllion U.S. workers were members of unions outside the AFL-CIO.
Ouster of Teamsters Union from AFL-CIO in 1957
Concerns about corruption and the influence of organized crime in the International Brotherhood of TeamstersTeamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
under the leadership of Dave Beck
Dave Beck
Dave Beck was an American labor leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957...
led Meany to begin an anti-corruption drive in 1956. In 1957, in the midst of a fight for control of the union with Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....
, Beck was called before the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957, and dissolved on March 31, 1960...
, commonly called the "McClellan Committee" after its chairman John L. McClellan
John Little McClellan
John Little McClellan was a Democratic Party politician from Arkansas. He represented Arkansas in the United States Senate from 1943 until 1977. He also earlier represented Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives.-Early life:McClellan was born in Sheridan, Grant County, Arkansas...
of Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
. Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
was chief counsel of the committee.
Televised hearings in early 1957 exposed misconduct by both the Beck and the Hoffa factions of the Teamsters Union. Both Hoffa and Beck were indicted, but Hoffa won the battle for control of the Teamsters. In response, the AFL-CIO instituted a policy that no union official who had taken the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment may refer to:* Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights* Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, a referendum related to the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations...
during a corruption investigation could continue in a leadership position. Meany told the Teamsters that they could continue as members of the AFL-CIO if Hoffa resigned as president. Hoffa refused, and the Teamsters were ousted from the AFL-CIO on December 6, 1957. Meany supported the AFL-CIO's adoption of a code of ethics in the wake of the scandal.
Democratic economic planning
In the midst of the Great SocietyGreat Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...
reforms advocated by President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
, Meany and the AFL-CIO in 1965 endorsed a resolution calling for "mandatory congressional price hearings for corporations, a technological clearinghouse, and a national planning agency". U.S. Democratic Socialist leader Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington
Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Personal life:...
wrote that the AFL-CIO had "initiated a programmatic redefinition that had much more in common with the defeated socialist proposal of 1894 than with the voluntarism of Gompers" referring to Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
, the founder of the AFL, who had openly opposed socialism for decades. The 1965 resolution was part of the AFL-CIO's ongoing support for industrial democracy
Industrial democracy
Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decision-making process, in organizations employing industrial...
.
Vietnam war
Meany defended "the aims" of Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's policy in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. He criticized those labor leaders, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers, who called for the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Vietnam, a policy that he predicted would lead to a communist victory in South Vietnam and the destruction of its free trade-unions.
A 1966 article in the Miami News stated that Meany demanded that unions give "unqualified support" to Johnson's war policy. Critics opposing Meany and the war included Ralph Helstein
Ralph Helstein
Ralph Helstein was an American labour union official.Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a law degree in 1934. He practised law from 1936, but became increasingly involved in labour union activities, culminating in his tenure as president of the United...
of the United Packinghouse Workers of America
United Packinghouse Workers of America
The United Packinghouse Workers of America , later the United Packinghouse, Food and Allied Workers, was a labor union that represented workers in the meatpacking industry....
, George Burdon of the United Rubberworkers and Patrick Gorman of the United Auto Workers.
Charles Cogen, president of the American Federation of Teachers
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers is an American labor union founded in 1916 that represents teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals...
opposed Meany in 1967 when the AFL-CIO convention adopted a resolution "we pledge the continued support of American labor in Vietnam". Walter Reuther stated that he was busy with negotiations with General Motors in Detroit, and could not attend the convention. "Sniping" at Meany, Reuther issued "demands" "to make the AFL-CIO more 'democratic'". In his speech to the convention, Meany said that, in Vietnam the AFL-CIO was "neither hawk nor dove nor chicken", but was supporting "brother trade unionists" struggling against Communism.
Meany's support for Vietnam continued even in the final days before Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in April, 1975. He called for President Ford, if needed, to provide a U.S. Navy "flotilla" to ensure that hundreds of thousands of "friends of the United States" could escape before a Communist regime could be established. He called for rescue of refugees from Vietnam. He also appealed for the admission of the maximum possible number of Vietnamese refugees to the United States. Meany blamed Congress for "washing its hands" of the war and so "undercut[ting]" South Vietnam's military forces, damaging their "will to fight"; in particular, Congress had failed to provide adequate funding for U.S. troops to stage an orderly withdrawal, Meany stated.
Departure of the United Auto Workers union from the AFL-CIO in 1968
Despite their cooperation in the AFL-CIO merger, Meany and Walter Reuther had a contentious relationship for many years.In 1963, Meany and Reuther disagreed about the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
. In an AFL-CIO executive council meeting on August 12, Reuther's motion for a strong endorsement of the march was supported only by A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor . It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks , now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.The...
, whose was the titular leader of the march. The AFL-CIO endorsed a civil-rights law and allowed individual unions to endorse the march. However, when George Meany heard A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
's speech, he was visibly moved. Thereafter, he supported the creation of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
A. Philip Randolph Institute
The A. Philip Randolph Institute is an organization for African American trade unionists.-History:Following passage of the Voting Rights Act, APRI was co-founded in 1965 by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin...
, to strengthen labor-unions among African Americans and to strengthen ties with the African American community.
Reuther resigned from the AFL-CIO executive council in February of 1967. In 1968, Reuther led the UAW out of the AFL-CIO, and the UAW did not re-affiliate until after Reuther's death in a 1970 plane crash.
1972 Presidential election
An anti-communist who identified with the working class, Meany expressed contempt for the New LeftNew Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
, which from the start had criticized the labor movement for conservatism, racism, and anti-communism and which in the late 1960s and early 1970s had many supporters of Communist movements, such as the Viet Cong. He criticized the New Left and the New Politics
New Politics
New Politics was a term used in the United States in the 1950s to denote the ascending ideology of that country's Democratic Party during that decade...
of George McGovern for elitism. A cultural conservative, Meany ridiculed a proposal of same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
.
Meany opposed the anti-war candidacy of U. S. Senator George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
for the Presidency against incumbent Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1972, despite McGovern's generally pro-labor voting record in Congress. He also declined to endorse Nixon. On Face the Nation
Face the Nation
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...
in September 1972, Meany criticized McGovern's statements that the U.S. should respect other peoples' rights to choose communism, because there had never been a country that had voted for communism; he accused McGovern of being "an apologist for the Communist world". Following Nixon's landslide defeat of McGovern, Meany said that the American people had "overwhelmingly repudiated neo-isolationism" in foreign policy. Meany pointed out that the American voters split their votes
Split vote
A split vote is normally used synonymously with "deadlocked", "hung", or "evenly split" vote. It indicates a vote in which no decision can be made, as neither side has the majority....
by voting for Democrats in Congress. According to Meany, class resentment was a major reason that Nixon won 49 states against McGovern, despite the dislike of the Vietnam War by a majority of American voters.
Public image and cultural controversies
President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
re-established the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
on February 22, 1963. Two weeks after Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
awarded it to Meany and 30 others on December 6, 1963. In granting the award, President Johnson said of Meany, "Citizen and national leader, in serving the cause of labor, he has greatly served the cause of his Nation and of freedom throughout the world."
Meany was well-known as a cigar smoker, and appeared twice on the cover of TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine with a cigar in his mouth. Meany stated that he had never walked a picket line, explaining that his union never needed to form a picket line,
because the employers made no attempt to replace the workers.
Later years
In his final years, Meany took up amateur photography and painting as hobbies.Meany's wife of 59 years, Eugenia, died in March of 1979, and he became ""despondent". He injured his knee in a golfing mishap a few months before his death, and was confined to a wheelchair. In November, 1979, he resigned from the AFL-CIO after a 57 year career in organized labor. He was succeeded by Lane Kirkland
Lane Kirkland
Joseph Lane Kirkland was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.-Biography:...
, who served as AFL-CIO president for 16 years.
Meany died at George Washington University Hospital
George Washington University Hospital
The George Washington University Hospital is a hospital in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It opened on On August 23, 2002, with 371 beds in a 400,000 sq. ft. building, housing than $45 million of medical equipment and cost more than $96 million to construct...
on January 10, 1980. The AFL-CIO had 14 million members at time of death. President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
called him "an American institution" and "a patriot".
Legacy
The AFL-CIO established the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
in 1974; the Center was renamed the National Labor College
National Labor College
The National Labor College is the only accredited higher education institution in the United States devoted exclusively to educating union members, leaders and staff. It was established as a training center by the AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills...
-George Meany Campus in 2004. The Meany Campus has housed the George Meany Memorial Archives, which holds all of the AFL-CIO records going back to the founding of the AFL in 1881, since 1987.
In 1994, Meany was pictured on a United States commemorative postage stamp
Commemorative stamp
A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...
, which was issued on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
External links
- George Meany (1894-1980) AFL-CIO biography
- George Meany Memorial Archives. Located at the National Labor CollegeNational Labor CollegeThe National Labor College is the only accredited higher education institution in the United States devoted exclusively to educating union members, leaders and staff. It was established as a training center by the AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills...
in Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
. - John F. Kennedy Library & Museum: Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded to George Meany and 30 others)