US #2848
1994 George Meany
- Honors first president of AFL-CIO
- Issued on his 100th birthday
Category of Stamp: Commemorative
Value: 29¢
First Day of Issue: August 16, 1994
First Day City: Wa... more
US #2848
1994 George Meany
- Honors first president of AFL-CIO
- Issued on his 100th birthday
Category of Stamp: Commemorative
Value: 29¢
First Day of Issue: August 16, 1994
First Day City: Washington, DC
Quantity Issued: 150,500,000
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Engraved
Format: Panes of 50, from printing sleeves of 400 (10 across, 40 down)
Perforations: 11.1 X 11
Color: Blue
Reason the stamp was issued: Honoring labor union leader Geroge Meany, this stamp was issued on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
About the stamp design: Christopher Calle, the artist behind many US postage stamp, was the creator of the image of George Meany on this stamp. One of the likenesses of Meany Calle used as inspiration was a Time magazine cover showing the labor leader. The pencil portrait on the cover had been done by Calle’s father Paul. The younger Calle also used photos of Meany supplied by the AFL-CIO as additional reference. Meany was known to always have a cigar. One of Calle’s original sketches pictured him with a cigar in his hand, but this was rejected because the US Postal Service has a no smoking rule for stamp subjects.
Special design details: The original stamp design had Meany’s name, but no description of who he was. The description “Labor Leader” was added before the stamp was produced.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue ceremony took place in the lobby of the AFL-CIO national headquarters in Washington, DC.
History the stamp represents: The stubbornness that became George Meany’s trademark showed itself at an early age. Against his father’s wishes, he dropped out of school and followed in his father’s footsteps, taking a job as a plumber. Through leadership roles in his local union, which he joined in 1917, he rose to become one of the most influential labor leaders in American history. But even after he had become president of the nation’s largest labor organization, Meany still considered himself a plumber.
Elected president of the New York State Federation of Labor in 1934, he went on in 1939 to serve as the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1952 he was unanimously elected president of the AFL, a position he held until his retirement in 1979.
Meany’s career remains unparalleled in American labor history. His greatest achievement was the merger of the AFL with the Congress of Industrial Labor (CIO) in 1955. As the leading spokesman for US labor, he successfully lobbied against discrimination, instituted training programs, and established an apprentice recruitment program. In 1963, Meany received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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