{{Short description|Founder of the United Automobile Workers of America}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = George Addes | image = George Addes 3x4.jpg | alt = | caption = Addes in 1942 | office = 2nd Secretary-Treasurer of the<br />United Auto Workers | term_start = April 27, 1936 | term_end = November 11, 1947 | president = Homer Martin<br />R. J. Thomas<br />Walter Reuther | predecessor = Ed Hall | successor = Emil Mazey | birth_name = George F. Addes | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|8|26}} | birth_place = La Crosse, Wisconsin, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|6|19|1911|8|26}} | death_place = Grosse Pointe, Michigan, US | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = Politician, activist, trade unionist }} '''George F. Addes''' (August 26, 1911 – June 19, 1990) was a founder of the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW) union and its secretary-treasurer from 1936 until 1947.<ref name=NYTobitAddes>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DB1231F932A15755C0A966958260|title=Obituary for George Addes|accessdate=2008-03-27 |author=New York Times website|date=1990-06-21 | work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=115 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709170359/http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=115 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-09 |title=The most important strike in American labor history |accessdate=2008-03-27 |author=detnews.com website |date=1997-06-23 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802101,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829120006/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802101,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 29, 2008|title=The importance of United Automobile Workers|accessdate=2008-03-27 |author=time.com website|date=1951-08-18 | magazine=Time}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934440,00.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110219235848/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934440,00.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = February 19, 2011 | title = Who's George For? | magazine = Time | date = March 18, 1946 }}</ref> Along with R. J. Thomas and Richard Frankensteen, he was a leader of the pro-Communist left-wing faction of the UAW.
==Background==
George F. Addes was born on August 26, 1911, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, came from Lebanese ancestry, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/group/arabic.html | title=The Political Graveyard: Arabic ancestry Politicians }}</ref>
==Career== At age 17, Addes went to work at the Willys Overland plant in Toledo.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/>
Addes and Richard Frankensteen led a major faction of the UAW, supporting piecework and incentive pay in auto plants. The other faction, led by Walter Reuther, accused them both of being communists. Addes participated in the Battle of the Overpass.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=119 |title=Richard Frankensteen, the UAW's 'other guy' |access-date=2008-03-28 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709174144/http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=119 |archive-date=2012-07-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1947, he lost his executive position to Emil Mazey.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/>
After leaving the UAW, Addes joined Ford Motor Company, from which he retired in 1975.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/>
==Personal life and death== Addes married Gloria Saba; they had three children.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/>
George F. Addes died age 79 on June 19, 1990, at the Bon Secours Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.<ref name=NYTobitAddes/>
==See also== {{wikisource|Ballad of the Gruesome Twosome}} *Battle of the Overpass *Communists in the U.S. Labor Movement (1919-1937)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Barnard, John, ''American Vanguard: A History of the United Auto Workers, 1935–1970'' (2004) . * Fink, Gary M. Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders(Greenwood Press, 1974). pp. 4–5. * Halpern, Martin. "The 1939 UAW convention: Turning point for communist power in the auto union?" ''Labor History'' 33.2 (1992): 190-216. * Kraus, Henry. ''Heroes of Unwritten Story: The UAW, 1934–1939'' (University of Illinois Press, 1993).
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080216222205/http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/collections/hefa_263-uaw.htm UAW War Policy Collection] * {{cite magazine |title=Labor's Communists Come Under Fire |journal=Life |date=24 March 1947 |volume=22 |issue=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/Life-1947-03-24-Vol-22-No-12/page/31/mode/1up}}
{{s-start}} {{s-npo|union}} {{succession box|title=Secretary-Treasurer of the United Auto Workers|years=1936–1947|before=Ed Hall|after=Emil Mazey}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Addes}} Category:American politicians of Lebanese descent Category:Politicians from La Crosse, Wisconsin Category:1911 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century American people Category:Activists from Wisconsin Category:Activists from Ohio
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