John J. Casey - Union Organizer and U.S. Congressman

Union Organizer and U.S. Congressman

In 1900 the United Mine Workers President John Mitchell (United Mine Workers) visited the Pennsylvania anthracite region and Casey quickly made a name for himself as a union organizer. His work with big labor allowed him to enter into the political arena. Running on the Labor Party ticket, and in 1906 Casey was elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature. In the 1912 general election, Casey scored the first of what would be six congressional victories over the next twenty years.

Casey was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1916. He was appointed a member of the advisory council to the United States Secretary of Labor in 1918, and appointed labor advisor and executive of the labor adjustment division for the Emergency Fleet Corporation, United States Shipping Board, during the First World War.

The early 1920s was a lonely place to be for a pro labor candidate in what was then a republican dominated region. He was again elected to the Sixty-sixth Congress, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920. Again elected to the Sixty-eighth Congress, but an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1924. After this defeat he worked as a business agent for the Plumbers and Steam Fitters’ Union. He was finally elected to the Seventieth and Seventy-first Congresses and served until his death at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone.