George Hardy (labor Leader) - SEIU Presidency

SEIU Presidency

David Sullivan, the 66-year-old president of SEIU (it had dropped the "Building" in 1968), retired at the union's convention in the fall of 1971. A number of younger, more activist leaders whose bases of support lay in the health care and public sector divisions of the union had challenged Sullivan for leadership, and he retired rather than seek re-election. Sixty-year-old George Hardy was elected his successor. He was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO in 1972, and elected to the labor federation's executive council at the same time. Hardy chafed under Meany's leadership, and in 1979 he publicly criticized Meany for not doing enough to organize workers into unions.

Under Hardy, SEIU's health care and public employee divisions saw rapid growth. SEIU added 42,000 members in 1972 alone, and had grown by a surprising 100,000 members by the end of 1975. During his tenure, SEIU grew to 935,000 members and became the fifth-largest affiliate in the AFL-CIO. As part of his organizing effort, Hardy started a special program in 1972 to hire college-educated interns and turn them into negotiators and international union representatives. In 1972, Hardy engaged in an abortive attempt to form the first national policeman's union. In 1975, the union organized its first local union of physicians, an action which allowed SEIU to become the largest doctors' union in the U.S. by the turn of the century. Much of the membership growth, however, came through affiliation rather than new member organizing. Hardy viewed the fast-growing American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) as SEIU's chief competitor. AFSCME had grown from a mere 100,000 members in 1951 to 500,000 members in 1972, and had elected a dynamic and aggressive new leader, 45-year-old Jerry Wurf, in 1964. Not only was AFSCME's growth substantial, its demographics matched those of SEIU's: At least two-thirds of the rival union's members were blue-collar workers, and a fifth of them worked in hospitals and nursing homes. To counter AFSCME's rapid growth, Hardy adopted a strategy of affiliating existing members rather than organizing unorganized workers. Between 1971 and 1980, SEIU affiliated 22 independent unions. Merger and affiliation accounted for 230,000 new members from 1971 to 1985, and virtually all of the union's growth from 1980 to 1984.