Harold Joseph Patrick Gibbons (April 10, 1910 – November 17, 1982) was an American

trade unionist 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 Employee ben ...

and labor leader. Born the youngest of 23 children in Archibald Patch,

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Lackawanna County (; unm, Lèkaohane) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and had a population of 215,896 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton. The county ...

, he nonetheless matriculated at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. He became a

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

union leader of Warehousemen, when St. Louis was America's fifth largest entrepot because of its situation on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and a major rail hub. The Warehousemen and Department Store Worker merged into United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees of America, and that local union merged into Teamsters Local 688 in St. Louis. 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 ...

was the third of three international trade union vice presidencies he held. He was also a vice president of the teachers' union and the AF of L. He was a delegate to

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...

from Missouri in 1952. He was vice-president of the

Alliance for Labor Action The Alliance for Labor Action (ALA) was an American and Canadian national trade union center which existed from July 1968 until January 1972. Its two main members were the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a ...

to promote social concerns and to organize the unorganized. He was a member of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

and

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

. The St. Louis union was considered to be one of the most progressive in the United States. It initiated health care centers for members, vacation centers at Lake of the Ozarks, and militated for good pension plans for its members. Under Gibbons the Union researched and submitted plans for the desegregation of schools which was promoted by the editorial page of the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

''. Gibbons and Local 688 were also noted for their support of

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

, and were instrumental in the construction of the large Council Plaza housing development, which has been

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 2007. For a time, Gibbons was widely considered to be the heir apparent to

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. F ...

. But Gibbons' work and political stances landed him on the

master list of Nixon political opponents Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

. Nixon's Chief Counsel,

Charles Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as Pr ...

, directed White House Counsel

John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...

to initiate tax audits on Gibbons, but Dean did not follow through. Gibbons' opposition to the

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 ...

led to Hoffa moving to marginalize him. Hoffa supported the war, while Gibbons had been a founder of Labor for Peace, and had visited Hanoi.Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, ''Peace Now: American Society and the ending of the Vietnam War'', 1999, Yale University Press, p.215 Another source of friction was Bobby Kennedy, who had hounded Hoffa, and whom Gibbons had befriended. While Gibbons remained head of the Teamsters in St. Louis, he was maneuvered out of posts in which he could influence policy. Gibbons died, from complications of a ruptured

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. They usually cause no symptoms except when ruptured. Occasionally, there may be abdominal, back, or leg pain. The prevalence of abdominal aortic ...

, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, November, 17. 1982. Interment was at Memorial Park Cemetery,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. The site of the original

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on the ...

baseball stadium in St. Louis, now a neighborhood playground, was named "Harold J. Gibbons Field" for him. Gibbons' papers are in the archives of

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...

which he was instrumental in founding, because Illinois union members who wished to pursue higher education had to make exhausting commutes to attend university in Carbondale.

References

;Citations ;Sources *Ledbetter, Les (November 19, 1982). H.J. Gibbons, 72, Once Viewed As Hoffa's Heir. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''
Gibbons
via Political Graveyard *Staff report (Jun 28, 1973). Lists of White House 'Enemies' and Memorandums Relating to Those Named. ''

'' *R. Bussel, "A Trade Union Oriented War on the Slums": Harold Gibbons, Ernest Calloway, and the St Louis Teamsters in the 1960s, Labor History, Volume 44, Number 1, February 2003, pp. 49–67(19) *The Senate Watergate Report, 1974, p. 218 *Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, ''Peace Now: American Society and the ending of the Vietnam War'', 1999, Yale University Press, p. 215

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbons, Harold, J. American trade union leaders Deaths from aortic aneurysm 1910 births 1982 deaths University of Chicago alumni International Brotherhood of Teamsters people Trade unionists from Missouri Missouri Democrats People from Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

See also

References

External links