Flip to CIO President Philip Murray addressing a crowd at an IUE rally, Turtle Creek Stadium, Turtle Creek, PA, April 26, 1950. Close Window
Credit: UE News Photograph Collection, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
The business manager and elder statesman of Local 506, James Kennedy (1893- 1958) was working in the maintenance division of GE's Erie plant when he was elected the union's first president in 1937. When the CIO and local Catholic clergy attempted to purge Local 506 of its leftist members in the late 1940s, Kennedy, still the leader of the union's older, more conservative skilled workers, rallied to their defense.
