Nuchow, William, 1928-1993

William Nuchow was born in Bronx, New York, in 1928. He quit school to go to sea and in 1946 was elected to the strike committee of the National Maritime Union. He then worked in steel mills and auto plants in Buffalo, New York, before returning to New York City. There he led the organization of New York City cabbies as an officer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 826, from 1952 through the taxi strike of 1956. Before joining the staff of Teamsters Local 210 in 1958 he worked for one and one-half years as an organizer for the United Furniture Workers in the South. In 1969 his efforts led to the chartering of Teamsters Local 840 to organize Technical, Industrial, and Service Agency Employees.

Nuchow was committed to labor education, and served on the advisory boards of the Harry Van Arsdale School of Labor Studies, the Cornell University Labor Liberal Arts Certificate Programs, and the Trade Union Leadership Institute of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Throughout his work with the labor movement, Nuchow had espoused progressive political and union causes.

William Haywood (Bill) Nuchow was born on June 15, 1928 to immigrant Jewish parents in the Bronx. He and his sister, Sylvia, grew up in the "Co-ops," a Jewish workers cooperative housing project. He attended P.S. 96 and P.S. 89, and organized his first strike (aimed at better pay and conditions for athletic coaches) while still at Christopher Columbus High School. After high school Bill became a merchant seaman and was involved in the 1946 waterfront strike as a member of the National Maritime Union's New York Strike Committee. This experience was followed by a stint in the army, where he served first as driver and then as acting Jewish chaplain in the 88th Infantry Division in northern Italy. After his army service he worked in the mills and auto plants of Buffalo, NY, and then returned to New York City as a trackman on the railroad, a dockworker, and a cab driver. He became the first president of the New York Taxi Drivers Union, Local 286 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and led the 1956 taxi strike. After working for a time in IBT regional offices, Bill was sent "on loan" for two years to the United Furniture Workers in Southern mill towns and in the lumber camps of Vermont and New Hampshire. He then returned to New York City to help organize IBT, Local 210, and eventually became Secretary-Treasurer of IBT, Local 840 (from July 1969). His last achievement as a Teamster was to organize the victory of the reform "Unity Slate" at IBT, Joint Council 16.

His interests, both political and intellectual were varied. Among the many causes he supported were the struggles against repression in Central America and Northern Ireland, work for peace and Arab-Israeli rapprochement in the Middle East, nuclear disarmament, union democracy, and U.S.-China cultural exchange. A staunch proponent of labor education, he studied at the Harry Van Arsdale, Jr., School of Labor Studies at Empire State College, and later served on the Advisory Boards of that school and the Cornell University Labor Liberal Arts Certificate Program. Beginning in the late 1970s he organized and led a series of trips to China for labor leaders and political activists, under the auspices of the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association. Bill Nuchow died on November 28, 1993. Among the dignitaries who gathered with his wife and four children, and many relatives and friends, to honor him at a memorial meeting were David Dinkins, Jesse Jackson, Bella Abzug and Pete Seeger.