By GREGORY N. HEIRES 

In 1957, with her daughter in high school and her son in college, Alma Osborne was getting a bit antsy.

“There I was, twiddling my thumbs,” said Mrs. Osborne, who stepped down in September as president of the Retirees Association of District Council 37.

Until then, her husband, Ernest, had discouraged her from entering the work force because he had traditional views and felt she should stay home to raise the kids. But after almost two decades of that, Mrs. Osborne figured it was time to work outside the household.

A lifelong New York City resident, she had worked from home as a seamstress for prominent people in Harlem and the entertainment community, including comedienne Jackie “Moms” Mabley. But that wasn’t the same as having a full-time job, Mrs. Osborne said. So she took a civil service exam and landed a clerical job at Bellevue Hospital.

She quickly became a union militant when she found that the clerical workers had poorer benefits — such as less vacation time — than other employees. “We walked the picket line, because civil service workers were not getting the same,” said Mrs. Osborne.

She was encouraged by her husband, a Transit Workers Local 100 activist who as treasurer was the first African American to hold a high position in that union.

Fighting for fairness
Her commitment to equity led her to leadership as Local 1784 was formed to represent public hospital clerical employees. She served as president until the local merged with Local 1549, which in the early 1960s organized clerical-administrative workers citywide. For several years, Mrs. Osborne chaired Local 1549’s Hospital Chapter. She participated in countless work actions and demonstrations, as well as a strike.

But for Mrs. Osborne, the highlight of her activism occurred in 1968 when she joined the hundreds of DC 37 members who marched in Memphis, Tenn., after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he supported striking AFSCME union members.

Mrs. Osborne retired from the city work force in 1978, soon became active in the Retirees Association and was elected president in 1991.

Association Secretary Norman O. Davis credits Mrs. Osborne with doubling the membership and expanding political action. DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders said the retirees were the grassroots powerhouse behind the union’s successful campaign last year to win the best pension improvements for public employees in a generation – including an annual cost-of-living adjustment for pension payments.

Expanding participation
“Under Alma’s leadership, the Retirees Association flourished,” Mr. Davis said. “Until she became president, the association was a male-dominated organization. As a woman and a long-time union activist, she was very popular and drew in a lot of people who hadn’t been involved before.”

“Alma has a genuine interest in people,” said Stuart Leibowitz, the group’s new president. “That was one reason she was able to generate so much participation by the members, whether that involved coming to the union to participate in phone banks or taking a course on dancing or New York City history offered by the association.”