Jerome Wurf was a US labor leader and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees from 1964 to 1981.
22 Facts About Jerry Wurf
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Jerry Wurf was present for King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop" oratory at the strike, the day before King was assassinated, and attended King's funeral.
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Jerry Wurf was a critical of both groups, but preferred the YPSL due to his dislike of Soviet totalitarianism.
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Jerry Wurf enrolled at New York University but dropped out to pursue radical organizing.
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Jerry Wurf got his start in the labor movement by working cafeterias and organizing the workers, forming Local 448, Food and Cashiers Local of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, in 1943.
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Jerry Wurf believed that hostile union leaders caused him to be systematically denied work in the following years.
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At this point, AFSCME was not very powerful, and Jerry Wurf recalled being treated with contempt by other local organizers.
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In 1958, Wurf wrung from mayor Robert F Wagner Jr.
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Jerry Wurf questioned Zander's growing authority over individual Locals through trusteeships.
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Jerry Wurf himself did not campaign actively in 1962, although he did receive a nomination for president.
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In 1964, Jerry Wurf unseated Zander by just 21 votes, despite Zander's active use of his incumbent position to control the election procedurally.
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Jerry Wurf moved to designate Zander 'president emeritus' and provide him with a full salary and expenses until retirement age.
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Jerry Wurf became the first challenger to defeat a president of a major AFL-CIO international union since Walter Reuther had done so in 1946.
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When Jerry Wurf arrived at AFSCME offices at 815 Mount Vernon Place in Washington, they were trashed inside and outside.
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Jerry Wurf sold the building and moved the union to a smaller office.
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Also soon after arriving, Jerry Wurf discovered and ended an ongoing CIA program within AFSCME.
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In 1965, Jerry Wurf called a constitutional convention for AFSCME in Washington.
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Jerry Wurf presided over strikes in New York, Lansing, Memphis, Baltimore and more.
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Jerry Wurf was a frequent dissenter to the policies of the AFL-CIO and its president George Meany.
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Jerry Wurf helped establish the first New York State chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality in the late 1940s.
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Jerry Wurf was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr.
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Jerry Wurf died of a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, on December 10,1981.