1. William George Meany was an American labor union administrator for 57 years.
44 Facts About George Meany
1. 2.
George Meany became a full-time union official 12 years later.
3.
George Meany served as president of the AFL from 1952 to 1955.
4.
George Meany proposed its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1952 and managed the negotiations until the merger was completed in 1955.
5.
George Meany had a reputation for integrity and consistent opposition to corruption in the labor movement, and strong anti-communism.
6.
George Meany was one of the best known union administrators in the United States during the mid-20th century.
7.
George Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in Harlem, New York City on August 16,1894, the second of 10 children.
8.
George Meany's parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent.
9.
George Meany's ancestors had immigrated to the United States during the 1850s.
10.
George Meany's father was a plumber and served as president of his plumber's union local.
11.
Michael George Meany was a precinct level activist in the Democratic Party.
12.
George Meany grew up in the Port Morris neighborhood of The Bronx, where his parents had relocated when he was five years old.
13.
Always called "George Meany", he learned that his real first name was William only when he got a work permit as a teenager.
14.
George Meany quit high school at age 16 to become a plumber like his father, beginning work as a plumber's helper.
15.
George Meany 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.
16.
George Meany's father died of heart failure in 1916 after a bout of pneumonia.
17.
When Meany's older brother joined the US Army in 1917, George became the sole source of income for his mother and six younger siblings.
18.
George Meany supplemented his income for a while by playing as a semiprofessional baseball catcher.
19.
In 1920, George Meany was elected to the executive board of Local 463 of the Plumber's Union.
20.
George 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.
21.
George Meany 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 administrators.
22.
George Meany developed a reputation for honesty, diligence and the ability to testify effectively before legislative hearings and to speak well to the press.
23.
When Green's health began failing in 1951, George Meany gradually assumed day-to-day operations of the AFL.
24.
George Meany became president of the American Federation of Labor in 1952 upon Green's death.
25.
George Meany quickly took effective control of the AFL, and proposed to merge with the CIO.
26.
George Meany further relied on a small, select group of advisors to craft the necessary agreements.
27.
George Meany fought corruption in the AFL affiliated United Textile Workers of America from 1952.
28.
George Meany appointed an independent monitor to oversee reform of the union.
29.
Concerns about corruption and the influence of organized crime in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, managed by Dave Beck, caused George Meany to begin a campaign to reform that union in 1956.
30.
George Meany organized campaigns against organized crime and corruption in the International Jewelry Workers Union, the Laundry Workers International Union, the AFL Distillery Workers, the AFL United Auto Workers, and the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union.
31.
George Meany demanded the dismissal of corrupt union officials and internal reorganization of the unions.
32.
On Face the Nation in September 1972, George Meany criticized McGovern's statements that the US should respect other peoples' rights to choose communism by saying that there had never been a country that had voted freely for communism.
33.
George Meany accused McGovern of being "an apologist for the Communist world".
34.
George Meany said that the American voters had split their votes by endorsing the Democrats in Congress.
35.
George Meany called for President Gerald Ford to provide a US Navy "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.
36.
George Meany appealed for the admission of the maximum possible number of Vietnamese refugees to the United States.
37.
George Meany blamed Congress for "washing its hands" of the war and of weakening South Vietnam's military, damaging its "will to fight".
38.
In particular, George Meany accused Congress of failing to provide adequate funding for US troops to stage an orderly withdrawal.
39.
Randolph said that he was sure that George Meany was morally opposed to racism.
40.
George Meany backed the two party system, and believed in "supporting your friends and punishing your enemies".
41.
George Meany injured his knee in a golfing mishap a few months before his death and was reliant on a wheelchair.
42.
George Meany was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.
43.
The George Meany Award was established by the Boy Scouts of America in 1974.
44.
George Meany was known as a cigar smoker, and pictures of him often appeared in newspapers and magazines smoking a cigar.