Jerry Wurf
| Jerome Wurf | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 May 1919 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | 10 December 1981 (aged 62) Washington, District of Columbia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Union leader |
| Spouse(s) | Sylvia (Spinrad) Wurf (divorced) Mildred (Kiefer) Wurf |
| Children | Two daughters, one son |
| Parent(s) | Sigmund and Lena (Tannenbaum) Wurf |
Jerome "Jerry" Wurf (May 18, 1919 – December 10, 1981) was a U.S. labor leader and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) from 1964 to 1981. Wurf was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., and was arrested multiple times for his activism, notably during the Memphis Sanitation Strike and was released just in time to hear Martin Luther King Jr's 'I've Been to the Mountaintop' oratory at the strike, assassination the next day, and attend his funeral.
Wurf was born in New York City in 1919. The son of immigrants (his father was a tailor and textile worker) from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he developed polio at the age of four. As a young man growing up in Brighton Beach, he was inclined towards radicalism by his family's poverty and by communists he met. For some time he joined the Young Communist League; he subsequently left it for the Young People's Socialist League. He was a critical of both groups, but preferred the YPSL due to his dislike of Soviet totalitarianism.
He enrolled at New York University but dropped out to pursue radical organizing. He 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 (HERE), in 1943. Local 448 was becoming powerful when HERE leadership incorporated it into Local 325 (Cooks, Countermen, Subdispensers, Cashiers and Assistants), then fired Wurf. Wurf believes that hostile union leaders caused him to be systematically denied work in the following years.
AFSCME president Arnold Zander hired Wurf to the union in 1947, after it became clear that Wurf was not welcome in HERE. At this point, AFSCME was not very powerful, and Wurf recalls being treated with contempt by other local organizers. He was generally disillusioned by his union's apparent capitulation to the anti-communism of the AFL–CIO and to the desires of local politicians.
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