Washington, DC
Our friend and brother, Vice President James E. Hatfield, former chairman of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union, has resigned from this Executive Council after a lifetime of energetic, distinguished and dedicated service to his union, this federation and the goals of free trade unions everywhere.
A native of West Virginia, he was 22 when he began work at the Kimble Glass Company in Columbus, Ohio, and immediately joined Local 106 of the historic union that was then called the Glass Bottle Blowers Association, over time becoming its shop steward, recording secretary, vice president and president. After serving his national union as an organizer, international representative and area director, he became its national secretary-treasurer and was elected president for the first time in 1977. He was later named chairman of the national union.
Jim Hatfield was a strong advocate of local union participation in central labor councils and state federations, and he served as an officer of the Columbus-Franklin County (Ohio)
AFL-CIO. He was also active in the work of the Ohio AFL-CIO, serving on its Community Services Committee where he helped forge lasting bonds between the labor movement and community organizations. As an officer of his national union, he continued to encourage local affiliations and active participation by local leaders in central body activities.
He recognized the value of strengthening unions and their ability to serve their members through effective mergers, and during his service to his union he negotiated a merger agreement with the International Brotherhood of Pottery and Allied Workers and later with the Coopers International Union that resulted in the formation of the GMMPAW.
Jim Hatfield was elected as a vice president of the AFL-CIO at its convention in 1981, providing the value of his experience and judgment to this council and many of its key policy committees for 16 years. In 1982, he became president of the Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO, where, under his leadership, the department initiated a wide range of programs to encourage all working men and women to help save and create good jobs by buying union-made goods and services.
This Executive Council of the AFL-CIO expresses its gratitude and appreciation to
James E. Hatfield for his lifetime of dedication to the American labor movement and the well-being of working men and women and their families everywhere.
This expression of appreciation will be perpetuated in the permanent records of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.