Labor and Unions
Scope and Content Note
This series documents Sol Gorelick's union activities during his tenure with the City of New York's social service departments. It contains a wide range of documentation, including meeting minutes, contracts, forms, pamphlets, fliers, newsletters, conference materials, and correspondence. The best represented unions are the Welfare Local 371, the Social Service Employees Union, Local 371, and their parent organization American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 37.
Gorelick joined the United Public Workers union when he joined the Department of Welfare, and there is one folder of materials regarding this union. The Welfare Local 371 of AFSCME, DC 37 (1955-1969) is particularly well-represented. These materials include negotiation documentation, contracts, publications, and committee materials. There are six folders of material on the Social Service Employees Union (1961-1969), that for a time competed with Local 371 for members from the Department of Welfare. In 1969, Local 371 and the SSEU merged. The resulting union, SSEU Local 371 is also well represented. Documentation includes the local's newsletter, chapter and committee materials, and leaflets. The is also a significant amount of material form AFSCME, DC 37, the AFL-CIO-affiliated parent union of Local 371 and SSEU Local 371.
There is small amount of additional material from other social service locals, unions outside of the social services, and peace advocacy activities in the trade union movement.
Historical/Biographical Note
Sol Gorelick had a long and active involvement in public social service workers' unions that coincided with a particularly tempestuous period for labor relations with the New York City government.
Gorelick joined the United Public Workers union upon starting work at the Brownsville Welfare Center in 1940. The UPW would be expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1950, during the CIO's anti-Communist purges. In its wake, two unions sprang up to represent workers in New York City's Department of Welfare: the American Federation of Labor-affiliated Social Investigators Union, Local 1193 and the CIO-affiliated American Civic Employees Union, Local 371. With the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955, these two unions came together to found the Welfare Local 371 within the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 37. Gorelick served as a vice president of DC 37 in the 1960s.
The 1960s were a period of great tension between AFSCME and the City of New York. Many caseworkers, particularly at the Brownsville Welfare Center, felt that AFSCME, DC 37 was not aggressive enough in its negotiations with the city. During a 1961 dispute between AFSCME and the city, this group petitioned the city to form a separate union. Happy to undercut AFSCME, the Department of Labor granted the request, and the Social Service Employees Union was formed. In the following years both the SSEU and Local 371 would compete for members in the Department of Welfare.
The SSEU called a walkout in 1964, and held a strike in 1964-1965 that Local 371 joined. During this strike Gorelick was sent to jail for resisting a judge's order. The SSEU initiated a sit-in 1966 that DC 37 and the New York City Central Labor Council were eventually dragged into to protect bargaining rights. The subsequent loss of this strike, along with changes to practices in the department, led to the weakening of the SSEU. They began merger talks with Local 371 in 1968. When an agreement was reached in 1969, the Social Service Employees Union, Local 371 was formed within AFSCME, DC 37.
Gorelick remained a member of the union until his retirement 1980, and participated in DC 37's community activism beyond that.
