Foley, Phyllis, 1922-

Phyllis Foley was the financial secretary-treasurer of Locals 283 and 2 of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union in San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

Biographical Information

Phyllis Foley was born on September 18, 1922. She moved with her family to San Francisco in the 1930s. A member of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 283, Foley was elected financial secretary-treasurer of the local in 1974, assuming an office once held by her mother, union organizer Bertha Metro. Shortly after her election, Local 283, representing hotel workers, was merged into the newly formed Local 2 of the International Union. For the next several years, Foley served as financial secretary-treasurer of Local 2 amidst growing factional strife.

Foley's mother, Bertha Metro, was a San Francisco labor organizer and longtime officer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 283. She was instrumental in the organization of San Francisco's hotel maids in the 1930s.

Lucille Kendall was a member and officer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she conducted interviews of participants in the San Francisco culinary strikes of 1937, 1941-1942, and 1980 for the California Historical Society.