Victor Bussie (January 27, 1919 – September 4, 2011)[1] was an American labor leader and politician who served as the president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO for 41 years from 1956 to his retirement in 1997.[2] Bussie was born in Montrose, LA and first worked as a firefighter where he was a member of the Shreveport Professional Firefighters Union 514.[3]
Victor Bussie | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 27, 1919 |
| Died | August 4, 2011 |
| Title | President, Louisiana AFL-CIO |
| Term | 1956-1997 |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
Boards and Commissions
editHe served on the boards of both the University of Louisiana System.[4] and Louisiana State University System:[3] which constitute both of the public 4-year degree systems in the state. He also served on the Louisiana Commission on Governmental Ethics and the Baton Rouge Police and Firefighters Civil Service Board.[3] Bussie, additionally, served as a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch.[5]
Right to Work
editAs most labor leaders Bussie opposed right to work laws but following the successful passage of such a law in Louisiana, under former Louisiana Governor Robert F. Kennon, he worked to implement a politically crude solution to eradicate it mostly by convincing the legislature to repeal right to work and simultaneously reinstate it only for farmers.[6][7]
In reaction to the agricultural right to work legislation pushed by Bussie, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an editorial saying in part: "This situation in Louisiana is of interest to farmers all over the country. In the last few years we have lost a large number of family-type farms. One of the reasons for this is that the man who runs his own farm finds it practically impossible to compete with big corporate agricultural farming, where workers are exploited and where production is on such a large scale that everything—buying, selling and production—can be done more cheaply than by any family-type farm".[8]
References
edit- ^ "Victor Bussie Obituary (2011) - Baton Rouge, LA - The Advocate". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ Hays, Robb (2011-09-04). "Labor leader Victor Bussie dies". WAFB. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ a b c "Longtime La. labor leader Victor Bussie dead at 92". The Courier. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ "Victor Bussie Steps Down from ULS Board". UL System. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ "Labor leader, civil rights activist Vic Bussie dies". St. Landry Federation of teachers. May 15, 2024. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
- ^ Kaminski, Michelle (December 2015). "How Michigan Became a Right to Work State". Labor Studies Journal. 40 (4): 362–378. doi:10.1177/0160449x15619542. ISSN 0160-449X. S2CID 148495764.
- ^ Canak, William; Miller, Berkeley (1990). "Gumbo Politics: Unions, Business, and Louisiana Right-to-Work Legislation". Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 43 (2): 258–271. doi:10.2307/2523703. ISSN 0019-7939. JSTOR 2523703.
- ^ Roosevelt, Eleanor (August 13, 1956). ""My Day, August 13, 1956," The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017)". My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
Further reading
edit- Becnel, Thomas A. (2001). "The Frustrations of Property Tax Reform in Louisiana: Bussie v. Long (1966) to "CC '73" and Buddy Roemer's Industrial Tax Exemption Scorecard and the 1991 Gubernatorial Election". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 42 (2): 133–162. ISSN 0024-6816. JSTOR 4233731.