Alfred Bernstein

Alfred Bernstein (April 9, 1911 – February 28, 2003) was an American civil rights and union activist.[1][2][3][4]

Alfred Bernstein
Born
Alfred David Bernstein

(1911-04-09)April 9, 1911
New York City
DiedFebruary 28, 2003(2003-02-28) (aged 91)
Washington, DC, US
NationalityAmerican
EducationColumbia University
OccupationCivil rights activist
Known forRole in UFWA and UPWA unions
Spouse(s)Sylvia Walker
Children3 including Carl Bernstein

Background

Alfred David Bernstein was born on April 9, 1911, in New York City. He obtained two degrees from Columbia University, including a degree from Columbia University Law School.[1][2]

Career

In 1937, he moved to Washington, DC where he worked as an investigator for inquiry by the Senate Commerce Committee (AKA Senate Railroad Investigating Committee AKA Wheeler Committee) into the railroad industry then under scrutiny.[1] ("I wasn't always on the payroll of the committee itself, but I always was attached to it," he later said.[2]) While conducting investigations, he observed how poorly government workers, especially blacks, were treated.[1] In 1941, he took a six-week leave of absence to help prepare a wage case for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.[2] In 1942, he joined the Office of Price Administration (OPA) based in San Francisco as investigator.[1][2] In 1943, he served two years in the United States Air Force in the Pacific theater of World War II.[1][2]

Around November 1945, Bernstein became director of negotiations for the United Public Workers of America (UPWA) until July 1951, shortly before he appeared under subpoena before Congress.[2] He was an active opponent of Harry S. Truman's Executive Order No. 9835 which required a loyalty oath "designed to root out communist influence in the U.S. federal government" and testified against it before the United States House Committee on Education and Labor and was subsequently called by a Senate subcommittee to defend his own loyalty.[1][2]

Later, Bernstein served as a fundraiser for the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research and the Union of Hebrew Congregations before joining the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1960 where he served until 1985 as vice president for development.[1]

Union and civil rights activism

From 1937 to 1950, Bernstein served as an official in the United Federal Workers of America[1] (after its 1946 merger, known as the United Public Workers of America).[1]

In the 1940s, he and his wife were members of the Communist party and, according to his son, Carl Bernstein, were persecuted by the US federal government.[3][4]

In 1947, Bernstein testified about a strike against the GSI.[2] (On January 26–28 and February 2, 1948, a hearing of the House Education and Labor Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Representative Clare E. Hoffman, occurred on the topic of a strike by United Cafeteria and Restaurant Workers (Local 471) and its parent, the United Public Workers of America (UPWA), CIO, against Government Services, Inc. (GSI), which had already lasted nearly a month. Hoffman refused to let UPWA head Abram Flaxer read a statement and asked questions including whether Flaxer was a communist. One of his UAW attorneys, Nathan R. Witt, objected to "abuse of congressional power." When Forer rose to follow on from Witt, Hoffman asked him, "Are you the same Forer who defended Gerhard Eisler?" When Witt objected to Hoffman's question, which led Hoffman to eject Witt from the hearing.[5][6][7] On January 26, 1948, Bernstein charged that House committee agents had raided the union's offices. During January, William S. Tyson, solicitor for the Labor Department, and Robert N. Denham, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, both agreed that nothing in the Taft-Hartley Act prohibited GSI from bargaining with a non-complying union. However, Denham added, the Act intended to "eliminate Communist influence from unions by denying to such unions the services of NLRB."[8])

On October 11, 1951, during testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SSIS), Bernstein refused to answer many questions regarding the UPWA, the Communist Party, and people including Abram Flaxer, Louise Bransten, and Grigory Kheifets.[2]

Personal life and death

Bernstein married to Sylvia Walker, a civil rights activist.[1][4] They had three children: journalist Carl Bernstein, Mary Bernstein, and Laura Bernstein.[1][4]

Alfred David Bernstein died age 91 on February 28, 2003, of a stroke at his home in Washington, DC[4]

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See also

References
  1. "Alfred Bernstein Dies". The Washington Post. 2 March 2003.
  2. Subversive Control of the UPWA. US GPO. 1951. pp. 100 (full name), 105–114 (testimony). Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  3. Bernstein, Carl (1989). Loyalties: A Son's Memoir. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780671649425. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  4. "Activist Sylvia Bernstein Dies at 88". The Washington Post. November 25, 2003.
  5. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates. US GPO. 1948. pp. D65. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  6. Simpson, Craig (2 January 2018). "Against the cold wind: The 1948 cafeteria workers strike". Washington Spark. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  7. Marder, Murray (2 January 2018). "Flaxer Refuses To Answer on Communism". Washington Post. p. 1.
  8. Wilder, Frank (27 January 1948). "Union Asserts Office Raided in GSI Strike". Washington Post. pp. 1, 6.
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