Victor H. Gotbaum (September 5, 1921 – April 5, 2015) was an American

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

leader. From 1965 to 1987, he was president of

AFSCME The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, correcti ...

District Council 37 District Council 37 (Also known as DC37) is New York City's largest public sector employee union, representing over 150,000 members and 50,000 retirees. DC37 was chartered in 1944 by AFSCME to represent public employees in New York City. It wa ...

(DC37), the largest municipal union in New York City.

Biography

Gotbaum was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. He married his first wife, Sarah, in August 1943. He fought in World War II, attended Brooklyn College and the

School of International and Public Affairs The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. It ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, and took his first union job as assistant director of the

Amalgamated Meat Cutters The Amalgamated Meat Cutters (AMC), officially the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, 1897–1979, was a labor union that represented retail and packinghouse workers. In 1979, the AMCBW merged with the Retail Clerks ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, in 1955. Under Gotbaum's leadership, DC37 successfully organized thousands of municipal hospital workers in the 1960s and helped create New York City's Office of Collective Bargaining. During the New York City bankruptcy crisis in the mid-1970s, Gotbaum and DC37 agreed to major

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

concessions, which set a pattern that forced other municipal unions to do the same. The action helped the city avoid default on its bonds. Gotbaum was succeeded by Stanley Hill, who was removed in 1998 in the midst of a major scandal, some of which may have had its roots under Gotbaum. After a trusteeship by

, Hill was ultimately succeeded in 2002 by

Lillian Roberts Lillian Davis Roberts (born January 2, 1928) served from 2002 through 2014 as the executive director of District Council 37 (DC37), the largest municipal union in New York City. Roberts was a nurse's aide, and was secretary of the University of Ch ...

, who first started working with Gotbaum in 1959. Gotbaum divorced his first wife Dr. Sarah C. Gotbaum in the early 1970s and married

Betsy Gotbaum Elisabeth A. Gotbaum (née Flower; born June 11, 1938) is an American civil servant, politician and a former New York City Public Advocate. She was elected Public Advocate for New York City in 2001 and reelected in 2005. She was the third woman el ...

in 1977. From 2002 to 2009, Betsy Gotbaum was the

New York City Public Advocate The office of New York City Public Advocate (President of the City Council) is a citywide elected position in New York City, which is first in line to succeed the mayor. The office serves as a direct link between the electorate and city governmen ...

. Gotbaum's daughter-in-law

Carol Anne Gotbaum Carol Anne Gotbaum was a South African-born air traveler who died, at age 45, on September 28, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Sky Harbor International Airport while being held in police custody. She was arres ...

was found dead on September 28, 2007 at the

Phoenix Sky Harbor Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a civil–military public airport east of downtown Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is Arizona's largest and busiest airport, and among the largest commercial airports in t ...

Airport. She was arrested for disorderly conduct, and initial reports indicate that Gotbaum may have accidentally strangled herself while trying to get out of her handcuffs. Carol Gotbaum was married to Noah Gotbaum, one son of Sarah and Victor Gotbaum. Joshua Gotbaum, another son of Sarah and Victor, worked in the Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations and was a

recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the a ...

as director of

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a United States federally chartered corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private defined ...

in 2010. Victor Gotbaum died of a heart attack in Manhattan on April 5, 2015.

In Popular Media

An interview with Gotbaum appeared in British filmmaker Adam Curtis's 2016 documentary

HyperNormalisation ''HyperNormalisation'' is a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" r ...

. Gotbaum is seen criticizing the way bankers caused the New York City financial crisis of the 1970s.

References

External links

*
Photos and Archives related to Victor Gotbaum.
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gotbaum, Victor 1921 births American military personnel of World War II Brooklyn College alumni School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni 2015 deaths People from Brooklyn American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees people Trade unionists from New York (state)