Office and Professional Employees International Union. Local 153 (New York, N.Y.)

AFL Federal Local 12646, Bookeepers, Stenographers, and Accountants Union, chartered in 1909, is the forerunner to the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

The BSAU affiliated with the CIO in 1936 and became the United Office and Professional Workers of America (UOPWA). In 1937 the AFL chartered a new Federal Local 20940, the American Federation of Office Employees, which was kept in trusteeship, but did hold elections. Howard Coughlin was elected president, and he later served as the President of OPEIU 1953-1976. In 1941 the AFL chartered a new local, 23076, with 200 members, the American Federation of Trade Union Office Employees. Its main jurisdiction was clerical workers in union offices, but it also organized vigorously and successfully within Local 20940's area. Local 23076 worked with the Women's Trade Union League to educate clerical workers about trade unionism and its actively participated in World War II Support work. In 1943, Lavina Michl was hired as an organizer--a major breakthrough for women's leadership in the local.

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