Background
Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in Harlem, New York City on August 16, 1894, the second of 10 children. His parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent.
Meany was born into a Roman Catholic family in Harlem, New York City on August 16, 1894, the second of 10 children. His parents were Michael Meany and Anne Cullen Meany, who were both American-born and of Irish descent.
When George had to leave high school because of difficult family circumstances, he chose his father's trade.
In 1910 George began his career as an apprentice and in 1915 became a journeyman plumber.
In 1932 he was elected a vice president of the New York State Federation of Labor, and he served as its president from 1934 to 1939. His work moved to the national level with his 1939 election as secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Upon the death of William Green in 1952, Meany became the AFL’s president.
He joined with CIO head Walter Reuther in merging the two national unions to form the AFL-CIO in 1955.
In 1957 he expelled the Teamsters Union, led by Jimmy Hoffa, from the AFL-CIO, and he lost the United Auto Workers after disputes with its president, Walter Reuther, in 1968.
He became sharply critical of President Richard M. Nixon's wage and price freeze in 1971, arguing against freezing wages but not profits, interest, and investment income.
Yet in 1972 Meany prevented the usually pro-Democratic AFL-CIO from endorsing the Democratic presidential candidate, George McGovern. In 1977 he helped to lead the United States out of the International Labour Organisation when it refused to criticize repressive communist policies. Labour historians note that during Meany’s term as AFL-CIO president, union membership as a percentage of the nonagricultural U. S. workforce declined from 33 percent in 1955 to 23 percent in 1979.
In 1919, he married Eugenia McMahon, a garment worker and a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. They had three daughters.