Public Employee Press

Union mourns Joe Zurlo, DC 37 president from 1969 to 1983

Many of the benefits city workers enjoy today were won through the leadership of Joseph Zurlo, who died Aug. 12 after serving as the president of Laborers Local 924 and of District Council 37 for most of his adult life.

Zurlo was known for his warmth, his humor, his commitment to the members and his persistence in the struggles that put DC 37 on the map.

When he went to work for the Parks Dept. in 1954, there were 7,000 employees, a handful of managers and no union rights. “The parks were clean and safe, a joy to visit,” he said.

“Now we have more bosses, fewer workers, and ­deteriorating parks. It’s unfair to everyone, especially the poor,” he said when he retired in 1991.

Zurlo fought for union rights for the unrepresented and justice for the less fortunate. He helped build the huge demonstrations of the mid-1950s, actually one-day strikes, that forced the city to recognize the union.

When the leader of those struggles, his friend Jerry Wurf, was elected president of DC 37’s national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the members of Local 924 chose Zurlo to fill his shoes. A member for 37 years, he served as president of Local 924 from 1965 until 1991, president of DC 37 from 1969 to 1983, and as an AFSCME vice president from 1970 to 1974.

He was proud of helping SSEU Local 371 organize pickets in the month-long 1965 welfare strike; helping to build many other locals; winning the first Parks Dept. working conditions contract in 1968; broadening the membership of Local 924 to include minorities and women; winning special pension provisions for workers in heavy-duty jobs, and the 1971 pension strike that won health benefits for retirees. Zurlo is survived by his wife Mary, children Diane, JoAnne and Joe Jr., seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

“If you stand up for what is right and fair, you can’t please everybody,” he told Local 924 members at his retirement, “but if I had it to do all over again, I would do it exactly the same way.”

—Bill Schleicher