David Sullivan, the 66-year-old president of SEIU (it had dropped the "Building" in 1968), retired at the union's convention in the fall of 1971. A number of younger, more activist leaders whose bases of support lay in the health care and public sector divisions of the union had challenged Sullivan for leadership, and he retired rather than seek re-election. Sixty-year-old George Hardy was elected his successor. Under Hardy, SEIU's health care and public employee divisions saw rapid growth. In 1972, Hardy engaged in an abortive attempt to form the first national policeman's union. In 1975, the union organized its first local union of physicians, an action which allowed SEIU to become the largest doctors' union in the U.S. by the turn of the century. Much of the membership growth, however, came through affiliation rather than new member organizing. Hardy viewed the fast-growing
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) as SEIU's chief competitor. AFSCME had grown from a mere 100,000 members in 1951 to 500,000 members in 1972, and had elected a dynamic and aggressive new leader, 45-year-old
Jerry Wurf, in 1964. Not only was AFSCME's growth substantial, its demographics matched those of SEIU's: At least two-thirds of the rival union's members were blue-collar workers, and a fifth of them worked in hospitals and nursing homes. Merger and affiliation accounted for 230,000 new members from 1971 to 1985, and virtually all of the union's growth from 1980 to 1984. and won a 5.5 percent pay hike. But the strike and dissatisfaction with CSEA's leadership led some CSEA members to ask for representation by SEIU. With Hardy's strong backing, the union was able to gather enough signatures on petitions to trigger a vote in two of the four units where workers were represented by CSEA, but SEIU lost the vote by a 3-to-1 margin in December 1972. A second strike planned by CSEA leaders was called off after delegates overwhelmingly repudiated a strike resolution supported by the union's leaders. The internal strife led SEIU to once again challenge CSEA for a large unit of New York State public employees. In an election held December 5, 1975, an SEIU-led coalition which included the
American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the
Laborers' International Union of North America, the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and several building trades unions was defeated by CSEA, 10,858 to 10,348 with 1,015 voting for neither union. With neither side winning a majority, a second election was held the first week of February 1976, which CSEA won (14,321 to 10,184). But CSEA delegates formally barred their leaders from seeking an affiliation with AFSCME in March 1976. Hardy, convinced SEIU could successfully raid CSEA, conducted secret polls which showed deep unrest in the professional, scientific, and technical (PS&T) unit. Working only with the AFT, SEIU once more obtained enough petitions to challenge CSEA representation in the PS&T unit. The raid was successful, and the coalition (known as the
Public Employees Federation) won, 15,062 to 12,259. Hardy and AFT leader
Albert Shanker hoped to raid CSEA further, but CSEA affiliated with AFSMCE on April 21, 1978. The affiliation made AFSCME the largest affiliate in the AFL-CIO. CSEA challenged the SEIU/AFT coalition's victory, however. CSEA attorneys alleged that nearly 5,000 of the signatures on the petition forcing an election were fraudulent. A
New York Supreme Court (the state's
trial court of
general jurisdiction) initially dismissed the suit, but it was reinstated by a
state appellate court. As the lawsuit progressed, CSEA won a new three-year contract which included a 7 percent pay hike in the first year. But the Public Employees Federation ultimately prevailed in the
New York Court of Appeals (the
highest court in the state of New York) on March 28, 1979. PEF subsequently negotiated a controversial contract which gave union members a 36 percent pay increase over three years. Submitted to the members without the approval of PEF's executive council, the contract was overwhelmingly approved by PEF members on December 6, 1979.
Political activity Hardy continued to be very politically active as SEIU president. Angry that the AFL-CIO executive council and AFL-CIO president
George Meany had refused to endorse
George McGovern for president in the
1972 presidential election, Hardy formed a group of like-minded labor leaders and announced the group would stump nationwide for McGovern. In gratitude for his actions, Hardy was nominated to and won a seat on the Democratic National Committee in 1973. Hardy was one of many labour leaders to provide early support to former
Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris during his
run for the presidency in 1976. Even after Harris' campaign had collapsed, Hardy continued to push his candidacy. He also publicly criticized
jimmy Carter for accepting a $1,000 donation from the anti-union
J.P. Stevens textile company. In the
1980 presidential election, Hardy backed
California Governor Jerry Brown for president. Some argued that Hardy's support was given because Brown had intervened in a labour dispute between SEIU and the California Horse Racing Board. When Brown's candidacy collapse, Hardy backed
Massachusetts Senator
Ted Kennedy's candidacy for president. Hardy was active locally and nationally on a variety of issues in the 1970s. He sat on a President
Richard Nixon's Cost of Living Council, and was an active participant on its health industry wage and salary committee. He was an early advocate for crackdowns on waste and fraud in the nation's nursing homes, and advocated that the government not pay for poor quality care. When New York City neared bankruptcy in 1975, Hardy led a group of union leaders in lobbying for federal aid for the city. He also pushed for federal legislation which would give federal and state public employees the right to
strike.
Final negotiations In his final years as president of SEIU, Hardy laid the ground for yet another major affiliation. By 1960, it had organized nearly every hospital in New York City, and in the 1970s expanded nationwide. The negotiations did not come to any conclusion, however, and in the early 1980s a major split in 1199 led all of the union's locals outside New York City to disaffiliate and form their own independent national healthcare union, the
National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (NUHHCE). Faced with growing opposition in the leadership ranks, Hardy retired at the regularly scheduled SEIU convention in 1980. He was succeeded by
John Sweeney. On the occasion of his retirement, AFL-CIO President
Lane Kirkland praised him. "George Hardy does not wear his social philosophy on his sleeve. He carries it in his heart," Kirkland said. "Because he is so uncompromising in his beliefs, it would be impossible not to have been on the opposite side of an issue at least once. But win or lose, George knows that when the fight for idealism is over, the practical battle for the survival of the labour movement begins. This commitment is what turns a collection of unions into a movement." ==Death==