Word: wurf
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...meetings of the AFL-CIO executive council, says one insider, the vote usually ranges from 25-to-l to 34-to-l, depending on how many other union chiefs are present to vote down Jerry Wurf. While that may be an exaggeration, the 54-year-old Wurf, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is certainly a maverick in the stolid hierarchy of organized labor. He has bucked the AFL-CIO high command on such issues as the 1972 election (Wurf was strong for George McGovern, while the federation observed a pro-Nixon neutrality...
...Wurf commands the fastest-growing union in the entire AFL-CIO; its 614,-000-member ranks have tripled since he took over the union in 1964 in a rank-and-file revolt against an ineffective leadership. Lately the A.F.S.C.M.E.'s rolls have been swelling by 1,000 recruits a week. Members range from zookeepers to engineers and social workers. About a third are women, and a third are blacks-two groups that union leaders have found difficult to organize or have ignored. This success has been achieved against fierce resistance from many government officials who insist that public workers...
...with that single appearance, Brennan provoked a maxi-split with his old colleagues in the union movement. Said AFL-CIO President George Meany: "We are aghast that Brennan has so completely abandoned the trade-union principles he espoused for all of his life before coming to Washington." Jerry Wurf, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was more succinct. Brennan, he said, was "a son of a bitch...
Judged by the overall figures, what Brennan said hardly seemed to warrant that reaction. He suggested raising the minimum wage nearly 44% over the next four years, to $2.30 an hour. But men like Meany and Wurf learned long ago to read the fine print in any proposal. They were predictably annoyed that this year's increase would only be from $1.60 to $1.90 an hour, a dime less than the Administration itself proposed two years ago. The earnings of a full-time worker who got the minimum wage this year would stay well below the poverty line...
...inflation, and he has dumped the double burden squarely on the shoulders of the American people." With equal passion, the charges were echoed by a succession of speakers at the meeting, including Speaker of the House Carl Albert, Washington Senator Henry Jackson, Public Employees Union Chief Jerry Wurf and four other A.F.L.-C.I.O. vice presidents...