Background
Martin Patrick Durkin was born in Chicago on March 18, 1894, the son of James J. Durkin, an Irish immigrant, and Mary Catherine Higgins Durkin.
Martin Patrick Durkin was born in Chicago on March 18, 1894, the son of James J. Durkin, an Irish immigrant, and Mary Catherine Higgins Durkin.
Durkin received his early education in parochial schools and at the age of seventeen became an apprentice steam fitter and was later made a journeyman. He studied heating and ventilation for three years in night school.
After education, Durkin served in World War I for two years. After returning home he resumed his career and in 1921 was made business manager of local 597 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry (the plumbers' union).
Durkin rose to vice-president of the Chicago Building Trades Council in 1927, but left the union movement in 1933 to accept the post of Illinois director of labor. He was elected president of the International Association of Government Labor Officials, a post he retained until 1955.
Durkin returned to a union career in 1941 and was elected secretary-treasurer of the international union (the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters of the United States and Canada) that year and its president in 1943.
During World War II he served on the National War Labor Board, the Defense Board, and in 1951 the National Security Resources Board. Durkin's career reached its climax when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him Secretary of Labor. Durkin took office in January 1953 as a member of the cabinet referred to popularly as made up of "eight millionaires and a plumber. " Since Durkin was a Democrat, his controversial appointment was described by Senator Robert A. Taft as an affront to union members who crossed party lines to vote for Eisenhower.
Although Durkin's political allies included George Meany, then president of the American Federation of Labor, many labor leaders were dismayed at the entry of a president of a major union into an administration that was considered anti-labor. After eight months in office Durkin resigned over a disagreement with the Eisenhower administration on amendments to the Taft-Hartley Law, which he sponsored but which were rejected by the administration. Durkin then returned to his post as president of the union. He died in Washington, D. C.
Martin Durkin was a Democrat. He used his political skills to help establish a state unemployment compensation system, minimum wage laws, and other social legislation advocated by organized labor.
On August 29, 1921 Durkin married Anna H. McNicholas; they had three sons.