Public Employee Press

A labor warrior
Stuart Leibowitz, retirees president, passes

DC 37 Retirees Association President Stuart Leibowitz, a union builder and leader for five decades, died Aug. 23. He was 74.

"Stu was a big force in our union for a half a century," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said, "from his days as an organizer in the drives of the 1960s to providing forceful leadership for our seniors until he passed."

Leibowitz led the Association for over 10 years, becoming one of the most prominent advocates of senior issues in the state labor movement and heading the city chapter of the AFL-CIO's Alliance for Retired Americans.

A tough negotiator, Leibowitz pushed for pension improvements and fought to preserve retiree health-care benefits and city reimbursement of Medicare Part B contributions.

Leibowitz frequently reminded working unionists that they were "retirees in training" who one day would receive the benefits of today's retired city workers if the union stood strong against management demands for cuts.

"Stu worked so hard for us and made sure to protect our benefits," said Rochelle Mangual, secretary of the Retirees Association.

Leibowitz majored in European history at Brooklyn College and cut a unique image in the labor movement as a liberal Republican who supported Democratic presidents, a history buff, opera connoisseur, and an intellectual of gravitas.

He joined the city workforce as a Social Investigator at the old Welfare Dept. and soon became an activist in the Social Service Employees Union, which later merged with Local 371.

He participated in the month-long 1965 welfare strike, which won the first comprehensive economic agreement for municipal employees.

Leibowitz served for many years as the local's vice president for research and negotiations and became a living encyclopedia on collective bargaining and an expert on civil service.

Leibowitz was an active member of the union team that negotiated the Tier 1 pension plan. After he retired from the unionized workforce in 1994, he became deputy chair of the impartial Office of Collective Bargaining.

But the union never left his heart, so when activists asked Leibowitz to run for president of the retirees association, he welcomed the call.

Leibowitz is survived by his daughter, Julie-Anne Leibowitz, a Electronic Computer Specialist (Operations) and an activist in Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627.

"My father believed in the important things in life: dignity, quality of life, security, integrity, loyalty and friendship. He taught me to fight for what I believe in, and never to operate from fear," she said. "The union was his life. It was and will always be our family."

—Gregory N. Heires