William George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

leader for 57 years. He was the key figure in the creation of the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

and served as the AFL–CIO's first president, from 1955 to 1979. Meany, the son of a union plumber, became a plumber himself at a young age. He became a full-time union official 12 years later. As an officer of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He served as president of the AFL from 1952 to 1955. He proposed its merger with the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO) in 1952 and led the negotiations until the merger was completed in 1955. He then served as president of the merged

for the next 24 years. Meany had a reputation for integrity and consistent opposition to corruption in the

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

, and strong

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

. He was one of the best known union leaders in the United States in the mid-20th century.

Early years

Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on August 16, 1894, the second of 10 children. 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 was a plumber and a strong supporter of the trade union movement and served as president of his plumber's union local. Michael Meany was also a precinct level activist in the Democratic Party. Meany grew up in the Port Morris neighborhood of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, where his parents had moved when he was five years old. Always called "George", he learned that his real first name was William only when he got a work permit as a teenager. Following his father's career path, Meany quit high school at 16 to work as a plumber's helper. He then 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. His father died suddenly of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in 1916 after a bout of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

. When Meany's older brother joined the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in 1917, George became the sole source of income for his mother and six younger siblings. He supplemented his income for a while by playing as a semiprofessional baseball catcher. In 1919, he married Eugenia McMahon, a garment worker and a member of the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female memb ...

. They had three daughters.

Beginning of union career in New York

In 1920, Meany was elected to the executive board of Local 463 of the Plumber's Union. In 1922, he became a full-time business agent for the local, which had 3,600 members at that time. Meany later stated that he had never walked a picket line during his plumber's union days, explaining that his original plumber's union never needed to picket, because the employers never attempted to replace the workers. In 1923, he was elected secretary of the New York City Building Trades Council, the city federation of unions representing construction workers. He won a court injunction against an industry lockout in 1927, which was then considered an innovative tactic for a union, and was opposed by many of the older union leaders, . In 1934, he became president of the New York State Federation of Labor, the statewide coalition of trade unions. In his first year of lobbying in Albany, the state capital, 72 bills that he supported in the state legislature were enacted into law, and he developed a close working relationship with Governor

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 1949 ...

. He developed a reputation for honesty, diligence and the ability to testify effectively before legislative hearings and to speak clearly to the press. In 1936, he cofounded the

American Labor Party The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of A ...

, a pro-union political party active in New York, along with

David Dubinsky David Dubinsky (; born David Isaac Dobnievski; February 22, 1892 – September 17, 1982) was a Belarusian-born American labor leader and politician. He served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) between 1932 ...

and

Sidney Hillman Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...

, partly as a vehicle to organize support among socialists in the union movement for the re-election that year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and mayor

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fr ...

National leadership in Washington, DC

Three years later, he moved to Washington, DC to become national secretary-treasurer of the

, where he served under AFL president William Green. During

, Meany was one of the permanent representatives of the AFL to the National War Labor Board. During the war, he established close relationships with prominent anticommunists in the American

, including

Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He 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 Centr ...

and Matthew Woll. In October 1945, he led the AFL boycott of the founding conference of the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation o ...

, which welcomed participation by labor unions from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and was later called a

communist front A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not ...

. The strike wave of 1945-1946, which was led to a large extent by CIO unions, resulted in passage of the Taft Hartley Act in 1947, which was widely perceived as anti-union. One provision required union officials to sign loyalty oaths affirming that they were not communists; this had a major impact on the CIO unions. Meany, in opposition to Lewis and other left-wing union leaders, replied that he would "go further and sign an affidavit that I was never a comrade to the comrades" since he had always ostracized communists. Within a year, most US union leaders unaffiliated with the Communist Party signed the affidavit, later upheld by the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1949 that the Communist Party was unique among American political parties in swearing allegiance to a foreign power.

Merger of AFL and CIO

When 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 Green's death. Upon taking leadership of the AFL, Meany put forward a proposal to merge with the CIO. Meany quickly took effective control of the AFL, but it took a bit longer for

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...

to solidify his control of the CIO. Reuther then became 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 The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unite ...

called the merger a "rope of sand", and his union refused to join the AFL–CIO.

Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975; declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. ...

, second in command of the Teamster's Union, protested, "What's in it for us? Nothing!" However, the Teamsters went along with the merger initially. Mike Quill, president 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. Fearing a drawn-out negotiation process, Meany decided on a "short route" to reconciliation. This meant all AFL and CIO unions would be accepted into the new organization "as is", with all conflicts and overlaps to be sorted out after the merger. Meany further relied on a small, select group of advisors to craft the necessary agreements. The draft constitution was primarily written by AFL Vice President Matthew Woll and CIO General Counsel

Arthur Goldberg Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to ...

, while the joint policy statements were written by Woll, CIO Secretary-Treasurer James Carey, CIO vice presidents David McDonald and

Joseph Curran Joseph Curran (March 1, 1906 – August 14, 1981) was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. He was founding president of the National Maritime Union (or NMU, now part of the Seafarers International Union of North America) from 1937 ...

, Brotherhood of Railway Clerks President George Harrison, and Illinois AFL–CIO President

Reuben Soderstrom Reuben George Soderstrom (March 10, 1888 – December 15, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor who served as President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor (ISFL) and Illinois AFL-CIO from 1930 to 1970. A key figure in Chicago a ...

. Meany's efforts came to fruition in December 1955 with a joint convention in New York City that merged the two federations, creating the

, with Meany elected as president. Called Meany's "greatest achievement" by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine, the new federation had 15 million members. Only two million US workers were members of unions remaining outside the AFL–CIO.

Campaigns against corrupt unions

In 1953, under Meany's leadership, the

International Longshoremen's Association The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. The ILA h ...

, accused of racketeering, was expelled from the AFL, an early example of Meany's efforts against corruption and the influence of organized crime in the labor movement. After bitter internal reform, the union was readmitted to the now-merged AFL–CIO, in 1959. Meany also fought against corruption in the AFL affiliated United Textile Workers of America from 1952. In 1957, he reported that the president of that union had been stealing more than $250,000. Meany also appointed an independent monitor to oversee reform of the union. Concerns about corruption and the influence of organized crime in the

International Brotherhood of Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...

, under the leadership of

Dave Beck David Daniel Beck (June 16, 1894December 26, 1993) was an American labor leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957. He helped found the "Conference" system of organization in the Teamsters union, and s ...

, led Meany to begin a campaign to reform that union in 1956. In 1957, in the midst of a fight for control of the union with

, Beck was called before the

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 (also known as the McClellan Committee) was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957,Hilty, James. ''Robert Kennedy: Broth ...

, commonly called the "McClellan Committee" after its chairman John Little McClellan, of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. 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. Meany also led campaigns against organized crime leadership and corruption in the International Jewelry Workers Union, the Laundry Workers International Union, the AFL Distillery Workers, the AFL

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American Labor unions in the United States, labor union that represents workers in the Un ...

, and the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union. He demanded the firing of corrupt union leaders and internal reorganization of the unions. When some unions resisted, he organized their expulsion from the AFL and later from the AFL–CIO, and he even set up rival unions. He set up an AFL–CIO Committee on Ethical Practices to investigate misconduct and insisted for unions under investigation to co-operate with its inquiries. According to John Hutchinson, a professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, "few American union leaders have such a public record of repeated and explicit opposition to corruption."

Vietnam War

Meany consistently defended President Lyndon B. Johnson's

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

policies. In 1966, Meany insisted for AFL–CIO unions to give "unqualified support" to Johnson's war policy. AFL–CIO critics opposing Meany and the war at that time included

Ralph Helstein Ralph Helstein (11 December 1908 - 14 February 1985) was an American trade unionist and labour leader best known for leading the United Packinghouse Workers of America The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), later the ''United Packin ...

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 The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 per ...

opposed Meany in 1967, when the AFL–CIO convention adopted a resolution pledging support for the war in Vietnam. Reuther stated that he was busy with negotiations with General Motors in Detroit and could not attend the convention. 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. As an anticommunist who identified with the working class, Meany expressed contempt for the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

. That movement had often criticized the labor movement for conservatism, racism, and anticommunism, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it included many supporters of Communist movements, such as the

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

. In the aftermath of the violence by antiwar demonstrators and police at the

1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus maki ...

, Meany sided with the police by calling the protesters a "dirtynecked and dirty-mouthed group of kooks". Meany opposed the antiwar candidacy of U. S. Senator

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pr ...

for the presidency against incumbent

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

in 1972 despite McGovern's generally pro-labor voting record in Congress. However he declined to endorse Nixon. On '' Face the Nation'' in September 1972, Meany criticized McGovern's statements that the US should respect other peoples' rights to choose communism by pointing out that there had never been a country that had freely voted for communism. Meany 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 had split their votes by supporting the Democrats in Congress. Meany's support for the war effort continued to the final days before

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

fell to the

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

in April, 1975. He called for President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

to provide a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

"flotilla" if it was needed to ensure that hundreds of thousands of "friends of the United States" could escape before a communist regime could be established. 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 of weakening South Vietnam's military, damaging its "will to fight". In particular, Meany accused Congress of failing to provide adequate funding for US troops to stage an orderly withdrawal.

Conflict with Reuther

Despite their co-operation in the AFL–CIO merger, Meany and Reuther had a contentious relationship for many years. In 1963, Meany and Reuther disagreed about the

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

, a major event in the history of the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

in the United States. Meany opposed AFL–CIO endorsement of the march. In an AFL–CIO executive council meeting on August 12, Reuther's motion for a strong endorsement of the march was supported by only

A. Philip Randolph Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American led labor union. I ...

of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railway ...

, the titular leader of the march. The AFL–CIO endorsed a civil rights law and allowed individual unions to endorse the march. When Meany heard Randolph's speech after the march, he was visibly moved. Thereafter, he supported the creation of the

A. Philip Randolph Institute The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) is an organization for African-American trade unionists. APRI advocates social, labor, and economic change at the state and federal level, using legal and legislative means. History In response to the 1963 ...

to strengthen labor unions among African Americans and to strengthen ties with the African American community. Randolph said that he was sure that Meany was morally opposed to racism. At the time of the 1967 AFL–CIO convention, Reuther demanded that Meany make the AFL–CIO more democratic. After years of disagreement with Meany, Reuther resigned from the AFL–CIO executive council in February 1967. In 1968, Reuther led the UAW out of the AFL–CIO, and the UAW did not re-affiliate with the AFL–CIO until 1981, long after Reuther's death in a 1970 plane crash.

Political goals

In the midst of the

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...

reforms advocated by President 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". American socialist leader Michael Harrington commented 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 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 decisi ...

. Despite Meany's support for reform policies that were sometimes called "socialist", he also said that "I very much agree with the free market system-" Meany pointed out, "When you don't have anything, you have nothing to lose by these radical actions. But when you become a person who has a home and has property, to some extent you become conservative." As AFL–CIO president, Meany supported raising the minimum wage, increasing public works spending, and protecting union organizing rights. He also supported universal health care. Under his leadership, the AFL–CIO lobbied vigorously for its goals. He backed the two party system, and believed in "supporting your friends and punishing your enemies".

Later years

By the mid-1970s, Meany was past his 80th birthday and there were increasing calls for him to retire and pass leadership of the AFL–CIO to a younger man. In his final years, Meany took up amateur photography and painting as hobbies. in June 1975 Meany as president of the AFL–CIO hosted

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repre ...

in his tour of the US and held a dinner in Solzhenitsyn's honor where the Russian writer gave one of his most well known speeches. Meany introduced Solzhenitsyn with a powerful speech. Meany's wife of 59 years, Eugenia, died in March 1979, and he became depressed after losing her. He injured his knee in a golfing mishap a few months before his death and was confined to a wheelchair. In November 1979, he retired from the AFL–CIO, after a 57-year career in organized labor. He was succeeded by

Lane Kirkland Joseph Lane Kirkland (March 12, 1922 – August 14, 1999) was an American labor union leader who served as President of the AFL–CIO from 1979 to 1995. Life and career Kirkland was born in Camden, South Carolina, the son of Louise Beardsley ( ...

, who served as AFL–CIO president for the next 16 years. Meany died at

George Washington University Hospital The George Washington University Hospital is a for-profit hospital, located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is affiliated with the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The current facility opened on ...

on January 10, 1980 from

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possi ...

. The AFL–CIO had 14 million members at the time of his death. President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

called him "an American institution" and "a patriot". He was interred at

Gate of Heaven Cemetery Gate of Heaven Cemetery, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, was established in 1917 at 10 West Stevens Ave. in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, as a Roman Catholic burial site. Among its famous residents i ...

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...

Awards, tributes and legacy

President John F. Kennedy established the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

on February 22, 1963, but died before he could award it. Two weeks after Kennedy's assassination, President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

awarded it to Meany and thirty others on December 6, 1963. Johnson said the award was for Meany's service to the union movement and for advancing freedom throughout the world. On November 6, 1974, Meany dedicated the George Meany Center for Labor Studies (founded 1969), which was renamed the

National Labor College The National Labor College was a college for union members and their families, union leaders and union staff in Silver Spring, Maryland. Established as a training center by the AFL–CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizin ...

in 1997. From 1993 to 2013, the college housed the George Meany Memorial Archives. In 2013 the archival and library holdings were transferred to the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...

, making the University th
official repository
The holdings date from the establishment of the AFL (1881), and offer almost complete records from the founding of the AFL–CIO (1955). Among the estimated 40 million documents are AFL–CIO Department records, trade department records, international union records, union programs, union organizations with allied or affiliate relationships with the AFL–CIO, and personal papers of union leaders. Extensive photo documentation of labor union activities from the 1940s to the present are in the photographic negative and digital collections. Additionally, collections of graphic images, over 10,000 audio tapes, several hundred films and videotapes, and over 2,000 artifacts are available for public research and study. The George Meany Award was established by the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded in ...

in 1974. Books published about Meany include ''Meany: The Unchallenged Strong Man of American Labor'' (1972) and ''George Meany and His Times: A Biography'' (1981). Meany's entry in the biographical encyclopedia ''

American National Biography The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...

'' was published in 2000, authored by historian David Brody. Meany was known as a cigar smoker, and pictures of him often appeared in newspapers and magazines smoking a cigar. On the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1994, Meany was pictured on a United States commemorative postage stamp.

References

External links

George Meany (1894–1980) AFL-CIO biography

George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archives
at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

's Hornbake Library *
Virginia Tehas Oral History interview
at the

. Tehas was Meany's secretary from 1940–1979, and the interviews include her insight on working for Meany. {{DEFAULTSORT:Meany, George 1894 births 1980 deaths American Federation of Labor people Presidents of the AFL–CIO People from the Bronx People from City Island, Bronx Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients American plumbers Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Laetare Medal recipients Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Silver Spring, Maryland) Trade unionists from New York (state) American trade unionists of Irish descent 19th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics Catholics from New York (state) American anti-communists Activists from Washington, D.C. American anti-corruption activists