William Sidell (30 May 1915 – 2 October 1994) was a carpenter and an

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leader. He was president of the

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, often simply the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC), was formed in 1881 by Peter J. McGuire and Gustav Luebkert. It has become one of the largest trade unions in the United State ...

from 1973 to 1979. He was born in

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to Samuel and Fannie (Freeman) Sidell. His father was a cabinetmaker. The family moved to

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, where Sidell graduated from public high school. He apprenticed as a carpenter, and in 1939 joined the local in Los Angeles. He married his wife, Frankie, in 1936 and the couple had three children. In 1948, he was elected business manager of Local 721 in Los Angeles, and in 1957 secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles District Council of Carpenters. He served as a trustee for the Carpenters Health and Welfare Fund for Southern California, and as a pension trustee for the Carpenters Pension Trust for Southern California. In 1963, he was elected a vice president of the Carpenters union and served on the general executive board. In 1964, he was elected second vice president, and moved to first vice president in 1969. After the retirement of president Maurice Hutcheson in 1972, he was elected president as his successor. The same year, he was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO, and served on the executive committee of the

Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is a labor federation of 14 North American unions in the building trade, founded by the American Federation of Labor in 1907. History North America's Building Trades Unions was founded by the American ...

and chaired the AFL-CIO Committee on Housing (a group which lobbied Congress on housing policy). 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 ...

appointed him to the President's Collective Bargaining Committee in Construction, but resigned in 1976 when Ford unexpectedly vetoed a ''common situs'' picketing bill. He was considered a successor to AFL-CIO president

George Meany William George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American labor union leader for 57 years. He was the key figure in the creation of the AFL–CIO and served as the AFL–CIO's first president, from 1955 to 1979. Meany, the son ...

. But when Meany hand-picked his assistant,

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 ( ...

, as his successor, Sidell and other contenders for the presidency withdrew.

Post-retirement

After his retirement, 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 ...

appointed Sidell to the

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Commission Supervisory Board in 1980. In 1976, Sidell agreed to serve on a new AFL-CIO board which would settle jurisdictional disputes arising between affiliates.

References

*Bernstein, Harry. ''Labor: AFL-CIO Seeks Greater Role With Affiliates.''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

, March 5, 1986. *Christie, Robert. ''Empire in Wood: A History of the Carpenters' Union.''

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

, Cornell University Press, 1956. *Fink, Gary, ed. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Labor.''

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, Greenwood Press, 1984. . *Galenson, Walter. ''The United Brotherhood of Carpenters: The First Hundred Years.''

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, Harvard University Press, 1983. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Sidell, William 1915 births 1994 deaths American trade union leaders People from Chicago People from Los Angeles United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America people Activists from California Vice presidents of the AFL–CIO