Maurice Forge Papers

Maurice Forge was born on October 6, 1902 in New York City. After losing his job as a commercial artist in 1930, Forge became a bus driver. Working at night, Forge began organizing by day for the fledgling Transport Workers Union (TWU). His union involvement deepened when he became editor of the TWU Bulletin. Forge, a Communist Party member, was hired as a full-time paid union organizer, and became the leading force behind the TWU's Publicity Department. In the late 1930s, Forge became a TWU vice-president and director of the union's new Air Transport Division (ATD). Airline organizing brought him into conflict with other CIO unions, as well as with powerful elements within the TWU who questioned the wisdom of investing union resources in this new venture. Despite some successes, Forge was discouraged about the lack of adequate support from the TWU establishment, leading him to champion the formation of a Committee for Air Transport Autonomy (CATA) after TWU's Biennial Convention in 1948. In the late 1940s, TWU president Michael Quill broke with the Communist Party, and union officials set about severing TWU's ties to the Party. Forge was tried before a union committee and, along with other influential TWU members, expelled from the union.

Forge went back to bus driving on Long Island, and continued to participate, unofficially, in the activities of TWU Local 252. Eventually he bought and ran the Crestwood Bus Company (he sold the company in 1970). Over the years, Forge maintained contact with many former colleagues from the ATD and from TWU Locals 100 and 252. He also remained close to Michael Quill, and, after many years lobbying to regain his TWU membership, Forge was granted reinstatement in 1984.

Forge died in Freeport, Long Island in February 1990.