George Barasch

George Barasch
George Barasch in 1937 after obtaining his first union charter.
Occupation	Union Labor Leader
Known for	Labor leadership, health and wellness advocacy, scholarships, constitutional rights protection, founder of the Union Mutual Benefit Retiree Association, Union Mutual Foundation, and Allied Educational Foundation
Board member of	Allied Educational Foundation (former chairman)
Awards	See Honors and Awards
Website	www.allieded.org

George Barasch (December 10, 1910 – August 11, 2013) was a US union labor leader who led both the Allied Trades Council and Teamsters Local 815 (New York City), representing a combined total of 11,000 members.

He was the first labor leader to create a union anti-crime department, and he was instrumental in eliminating racketeering and organized crime from much of local union life in New Jersey and New York City in the early 1950s. His disputes with the United States government in the mid-1960s over control of union benefit funds ultimately led to proposed legislation that prompted and evolved into the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

In 1964, after spending over two decades fighting for the rights of workers to organize and thrive, Barasch created the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) as an independent organization that would continue to advance the education and rights of working Americans outside the labor arena. The semi-annual AEF conferences served as a forum for high-ranking political figures, academics, legal scholars, and civil rights activists including Senator William Proxmire, Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, President Gerald Ford, Vice President Walter F. Mondale, labor columnist Victor Riesel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Harrison E. Salisbury, and economist Leo Cherne.

Barasch remained Chairman of the Allied Educational Foundation for 49 years until his death, at 102.

Barasch was born in 1910 in Russia. He immigrated with his family to the US as a young boy and obtained his first job at 14 with Ye Colonial Sweet Shop (Brooklyn) in 1925. In 1928, while employed as a clerk at Davis Drug Store (Brooklyn), he enrolled at St. John's University (originally in Brooklyn). In 1931, Barasch worked as a clerk at B. & W. Pharmacy and soon after became an apprentice at Walgreens Drug Store]]. He graduated from St. John's University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science in 1934, and enrolled in St. John's University School of Law in September 1935.