Fred Mader

Fred Mader
Born	1883
Occupation	Labor leader President, Chicago Building and Construction Trades Council
Children	1

Fred "Frenchy" Mader (born 1883 - died ?) was an American labor leader and organized crime figure active in the Chicago, Illinois, labor movement in the 1910s and 1920s. He was president of the influential Chicago Building and Construction Trades Council, a coalition of construction unions, for nine months in 1922.

Fred Mader was born in Chicago in 1883. When he was 14 years old, he went to work for a year at Marshall Field's running cash from the safe to the counters. He worked for a for three years, and then spent a year working for a company which installed light fixtures in homes and apartment buildings. He moved to New York City for nine months and worked as a fixture hanger there for nine months before returning to Chicago.

Once back in Chicago, Mader joined Local 381 of the Fixture Hangers' Union, and by 1915 was the local's assistant business agent. His job was to roam construction sites, ensuring that the terms of union contracts were honored by employers.

Mader also became involved with organized crime. He was an associate of Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy, a mobster and labor racketeer who controlled several major railroad, laundry and dye workers' unions during the 1910s and early 1920s. In 1915, Mader was accused in court testimony of asking local business owners for protection money in exchange for not having their expensive glass windows constantly broken. Mader was sentenced to three years in prison for extortion.

After his release from prison, Mader rose quickly within Local 381, becoming its president. He was also influential in the electrical workers' union. Mader's growing importance and power within Chicago's labor movement led him to be elected president of the Chicago Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) on February 17, 1922. A split had emerged in the BCTC over whether to accept an arbitration award lowering wages throughout the city's construction industry, and the faction opposing the award was ousted from its leadership positions. It was later alleged that Mader won election as BCTC president due to the strong-arm tactics of "Big Tim" Murphy.

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