Lenore Miller
{{Short description|American labor union leader (1932–2025)}}
Lenore Miller (March 10, 1932 – June 2, 2025) was an American labor union leader.
Life and career
Born in Union City, New Jersey, Miller studied at Rutgers University, Purdue University, and The New School for Social Research. In 1958, she began working as a secretary at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), and was soon promoted to become assistant to the union's president. In 1978, she was elected as a vice president of the union, then in 1980, as its secretary-treasurer. In 1986, she was elected as president of the union, the first woman to serve in the post. The following year, she became a vice president of the AFL-CIO and the first woman union president to serve on the federation's executive council.{{cite web |title=Lenore Miller |url=https://aflcio.org/about/leadership/statements/lenore-miller |website=AFL-CIO |access-date=8 February 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Minchin |first1=Timothy |title=Labor Under Fire A History of the AFL-CIO Since 1979 |date=2017 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=9781469632995}}{{cite book |title=Who's who in Finance and Industry |volume=30 |date=1998 |publisher=Marquis}}
As the leader of the union, Miller campaigned for improved day care provision, and for family leave to be more widely available.{{cite book |last1=Hooyman |first1=Nancy |last2=Gonyea |first2=Judith |title=Feminist Perspectives on Family Care |date=1995 |publisher=SAGE |page=66}} She campaigned on health and safety at work, and for the representation of low paid workers by unions. She served on the executives of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations and the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees, in which roles she campaigned for democracy and human rights around the world. She also served as vice chair of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and as president of the Jewish Labor Committee.
Under her leadership, in 1993, the RWDSU affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers, while retaining its separate identity.{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.rwdsu.info/history |website=RWDSU |access-date=8 February 2023}} Miller retired in 1998.
Miller died on June 2, 2025, at the age of 93.{{Cite web |title=Lenore Miller Obituary (1932 - 2025) - Legacy Remembers |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/lenore-miller-obituary?id=58543696 |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=Legacy.com}}
References
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{{succession box|title=President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union|years=1986–1998|before=Alvin Heaps|after=Stuart Appelbaum}}
{{succession box|title=President of the Jewish Labor Committee|years=1989–1998|before=Herb Magidson|after=Morton Bahr}}
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Category:American trade union leaders
Category:Jewish American trade unionists
Category:People from Union City, New Jersey
Category:Purdue University alumni
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:The New School alumni
Category:Trade unionists from New Jersey
Category:Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO
Category:Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union people