George Meany

George Meany 1894-1980, American labor leader, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO; 1955-79), b. New York City. A plumber, he was elected business agent of his local union in 1922 and rose in 1934 to the presidency of the New York State Federation of Labor. He proved an able lobbyist before the Albany legislature, where he successfully helped promote the passage of 72 prolabor bills. Elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL in 1939, he held that post until his elevation to the presidency upon the death of William Green (1952). When the AFL and the CIO merged in 1955, Meany was elected head of the new federation and was reelected after that without opposition. Angered by reforms in the Democratic party in 1972, Meany was influential in leading the traditionally Democratic AFL-CIO into a neutral stance, supporting neither one of the major candidates in the presidential election. Many observers agreed that this was a significant element in President Nixon's landslide victory. Meany later broke with Nixon, however, and became an early advocate of his resignation or impeachment. A supporter of Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election, Meany later denounced Carter's economic policies.

Bibliography: See J. C. Goulden, Meany (1972).

Meany, George (1894–1980), labor leader.Born in New York City, George Meany in 1915 joined the United Association of Plumbers and Steam Fitters, his father's union. In 1922 he attained his first union office, winning election as business agent of New York City Local 463. He served as president of the New York State Federation of Labor from 1934 to 1939, and in 1939 was elected secretary‐treasurer of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Upon the death of William Green in 1952, the Executive Council elected Meany president of the AFL. In 1955, successful in his efforts to effect a merger with the once‐rival Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Meany was elected president of the AFL‐CIO, a post he held for twenty‐four years.

Meany acted forcefully as an advocate of labor's views from within the political system. He supported civil rights legislation but rarely challenged the racially discriminatory practices of craft unions. Meany was an ardent cold warrior who fought procommunist unionism at home and abroad, and also supported the Vietnam War. During his AFL presidency, union membership declined as a proportion of the nonagricultural labor force, a circumstance that Meany viewed with equanimity so long as the AFL‐CIO remained influential in government and Democratic party circles. Meany clashed frequently with United Automobile Workers president Walter Reuther, who urged revitalization of labor's activist traditions and a less strident approach to foreign‐policy questions.

As a labor leader, Meany championed workers' economic interests and allied with the mainstream civil rights movement. He did little, however, to accommodate the concerns of women, minority or marginal workers, or more militant trade unionists.
See also Anticommunism; Cold War; Immigrant Labor; Labor Movements; Women in the Labor Force.

Bibliography

Joseph C. Meany , Meany, 1972.
Robert H. Zieger , George Meany: Labor's Organization Man, in Labor Leaders in America, eds. Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren Van Tine, 1987, pp. 324–49.

Robert H. Zieger