Thomas C. Short (born 1949) is a former American labor union leader. Born in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, Short became a stagehand for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. In 1968, he followed his father and grandfather in joining the

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, known as simply the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE or ...

. In 1975, he was charged with assaulting the reporter Jay Bacchus when he crossed a picket line, for which he was fined $800. In 1980, he was indicted, along with his father, accused of embezzling union funds, but the charges were dropped. He was elected as an international vice-president of the union in 1988, and then in 1993 became the union's general secretary-treasurer. He was elected as president of the union in 1994. As leader of the union, Short signed a large number of agreements. He set up a

Political Action Committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

, and persuaded the

United Scenic Artists United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, formerly known as United Scenic Artists of America (USAA), is an American labor union. It is a nationwide autonomous Local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. It organizes designers ...

to reaffiliate to the union. He also introduced the Individual Retirement Plan for union members on the West Coast. The ''

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

'' described him as "often is more ally than adversary to management". Under his leadership, membership of the union increased by more than 50%. In addition, he was elected as a vice-president of the

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

. Short retired in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Tom Living people 1949 births American trade union leaders Activists from Cleveland Trade unionists from Ohio Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO