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Office and Professional Employees International Union

Abbreviation	OPEIU
Predecessor	International Council of Office Employee Unions
Formation	1945; 80 years ago (1945)
Type	Trade union
Headquarters	New York City, New York, US
Location	United States Canada
Membership	88,000 (2021)
President	Richard Lanigan
Secretary-treasurer	Mary Mahoney
Secessions	Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union
Affiliations	AFL–CIO Canadian Labour Congress
Website	opeiu.org
Formerly called	Office Employees International Union

The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) is a trade union in the United States and Canada representing approximately 88,000 white-collar working people in the public and private sectors. It has members in all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as in one local in Canada.

History

Clerical unions began forming in the early 1900s. By 1920, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had issued charters to more than 50 clerical unions. In 1942, the locals banded together to form the International Council of Office Employee Unions. In 1945, this union received a charter from the AFL as the Office Employees International Union.

In 1992, the union absorbed the Leather Workers' International Union of America. In 2010, the Association of Minor League Umpires, the national labor union that represents Minor League Baseball umpires voted to join OPEIU.

Canadian autonomy

Canadian members made up nearly a quarter of the union as early as the 1970s but in 2003 the OPEIU chose not to appoint a Canadian to the position of Secretary-Treasurer, the second-highest union rank. In March 2004, OPEIU President Michael Goodwin concluded that the American locals of the union had subsidized the Canadian locals by approximately $10 million. Goodwin proposed raising the per capita dues of Canadian OPEIU members by $2.00 per member per month, which, accounting for the then low Canadian dollar, would mean Canadians were paying more in dues than their American counterparts.

On June 20, 2004, the Canadian locals voted 74 percent to 26 percent to form their own, autonomous union under the umbrella of the international. OPEIU Canadian delegates to the international convention, meeting in Bal Harbor, Florida, withdrew from the proceedings and formed their own national union—the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE).

Presidents

1945: Paul Hutchings

1953: Howard Coughlin

1979: John Kelly

1994: Michael Goodwin

2015: Richard Lanigan

References

1. US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-067. (Search) Report submitted 2021-12-24.
2. "Inactive Organizations" (PDF). UMD Labor Collections. University of Maryland. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
3. "Minor league umps affiliate with larger union". FOX Sports. February 22, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
4. ^ Ross, Andy (2011). Finding Our Power: Stories of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 378. Vancouver: Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 378. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-9784058-1-6.
5. "Our History". OPEIU. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
6. ^ "Coughlin retires August 1 as OPEIU President; John Kelly chosen to replace him in post" (PDF). White Collar. July–August 1979. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
7. Cimini, Michael H.; Muhl, Charles J. (January 1995). "Labor-management bargaining in 1994". Monthly Labor Review.
8. "Lanigan Elected OPEIU President". Bloomberg Law. June 6, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2022.

Further reading

• Finley, Joseph E. (1975). White Collar Union: The Story of the OPEIU and Its People. New York: Octagon Books. ISBN 978-0-374-92742-4.

External links

• Official website

Archives

• The Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 8 (Seattle, Wash.) Records. 1938-1998. 238.09 cubic feet. At the Labor Archives of Washington State, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

• AFL-CIO
• Trade unions established in 1945
• Organizations based in New York City