Jerome Wurf - AFSCME District Council 37

AFSCME District Council 37

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.

On the brink of quitting his job, Wurf was appointed, again by Zander, to the presidency of District Council 37. This upset various established local union leaders, who in many cases tried to leave AFSCME for other unions. Nevertheless, District Council 37 achieved some concrete victories for workers under Wurf's leadership.

In 1958, Wurf wrung from mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. an executive order giving the city's workers the right to form unions, and providing for elections which could establish these unions as exclusive bargaining agents for the workers in various city agencies. (This order was a model for President Kennedy's Executive Order 10988, which recognized the right of federal employees to collective bargaining. ) District Council 37 won many of the ensuing elections, making it into one of the large public employee local unions in the world.

Wurf broke with Zander over his allegiances to the AFL–CIO and to the Mafia. He also questioned Zander's growing authority over individual Locals through trusteeships. After the union's 1958 convention, he decided to seek its presidency.