James J. Matles ^People

He came to the U.S. in 1928 at age 19 and soon became a citizen, went to work in various machine shops in Brooklyn, and became active in union organizing. During World War II he took a leave from his duties as a UE officer to serve in the Army.In later years, according to journalists who knew him, Mr. Matles seemed to mellow and become less the fiery orator and more the careful union administrator andskillful bargainer.In recent major negotiations with the big electrical companies he and his 165,000-member union worked closely with other major unions, including the rival International Union of Electrical Workers, in coordinating bargaining.UE's survival over those attacks, and its renewed growth in membership and influence in the 1960s a n d '70s, are perhaps the greatest accomplishments of Males and other leaders of his generations.Matles's contributions to UE are too extensive tofully describe in this. He helped launch UE's efforts to organize the South starting in the 1960s. For years he headed up UE's bargaining with GE, and worked tirelessly to end the civil war between UE and the IUE and other unions and build a united front to negotiate with GE. His efforts bore fruit with thebirth of coordinated bargaining and the 1969-70 strike by a coali- tion of unions that dealt a blow to GE's divide-and-conquer strategy.