Rochester Labor Council History: Who’s Who

Overview

While the history of Rochester’s central labor bodies can be described in terms of topics and eras, it comes alive through the stories of actual people who led and participated in their activities: officers, members of committees, delegates, etc.

While the names of thousands of these individuals are lost and little is recorded about most of them, some information has been preserved:

• From a wide range of data (see Sources) we have compiled a list of Presidents, not only of the several central labor bodies but also the Building Trades Council.
• From several sources we have compiled a list of Officers of the several bodies.
• From the Illustrated History of the Rochester Trades Assembly and the Building Trades Council, Rochester, N.Y. (published by the Rochester Trades Assembly in 1897), we have reproduced Biographical Sketches (1897) of the officers of both bodies.
• From the official journal of the Central Trades & Labor Council, the Labor Herald and Citizen, we have reproduced a series of twelve Biographical Sketches (1930), Who is Who! Rochester's Labor Celebrities, which ran in 1930.
• From an independent local labor journal, the Labor Herald, we have reproduced a series of twenty-four Biographical Sketches (1939), Among Rochester Labor Leaders, which ran in 1939-40.
• From later sources on other labor leaders we have compiled brief Biographical Sketches (1940-2005) of local labor figures including Emanuel Koveleski, one of Rochester’s most enduring labor leaders, and local labor journalist Alex Gaby.
• Additional biographies, drawn from a series of interviews initiated with local labor figures in 2006, are included here as Biographical Sketches (2006). This section will be augmented as additional interviews are conducted.