Richard Cordtz

Richard Webster Cordtz (December 20, 1921 – November 20, 2006) was an American labor leader. From 1980 to 1995, he was the International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union under John Sweeney, and was president of the union himself from October 1995 to May 1996.

Early life Cordtz was born in Chicago, Illinois, in December 1921. and was elected vice-president of the Colorado Federation of Labor at the age of 30. Cordtz was also elected president of SEIU Joint Council 35 (a coalition of Detroit-area SEIU locals), and president of Service Employees Central States Conference (a coalition of SEIU councils and state, regional and local bodies in the Midwest). Cordtz also served as vice-president of Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO He also often represented SEIU when existing independent locals affiliated with the larger union.

Cordtz retired from his position at the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO in 1991 but his departure from these and other posts — many of which provided him with an income — angered his critics, who accused him of double-dipping.

SEIU presidency and later life SEIU President John Sweeney won election as President of the AFL-CIO on October 25, 1995. Sweeney resigned as SEIU president on December 12, 1995, and the 74-year-old Cordtz was elected president the same day to serve out his unexpired term (which ended in April 1996).

Cordtz immediately announced that he would run in April 1996 for a full four-year term as SEIU president, but he ran into significant opposition from reformers in the union who felt he was too close to the "old guard" — white, male, highly paid, double-dipping officials who ran the union in an autocratic fashion. John Sweeney, who had once said he would not support electing anyone over the age of 70 to the SEIU presidency, reversed his position and announced his support for Cordtz's candidacy.

To improve his standing in the union, Cordtz adopted many of the militant tactics pioneered by Sweeney and other SEIU leaders. For example, he blocked traffic on a busy San Francisco, California, street in mid-February 1996 to protest the anti-union activities of Vencor Corp., then the nation's second-largest nursing home chain and a target of a major SEIU organizing drive.

As the SEIU convention neared, Cordtz chose Gus Bevona, President of SEIU Local 32B-32J, as his running mate instead of the incumbent (and Sweeney protégé), Betty Bednarczyk. Bevona had succeeded Sweeney as president of the giant janitorial and elevator operators union in New York City in 1980. Bevona suppressed opposition within the union, centralized authority and reduced democratic processes, engaged in a large number of legally- and ethically-questionable side-deals, and associated with known organized crime figures. By 1996, his salary had ballooned to nearly $450,000 a year, and the New York City press had revealed that he had built himself a palatial office and lived in a union-owned penthouse rent-free. The announcement of the powerful but ethically-questionable Bevona as Cordtz's running mate cost Cordtz the support of John Sweeney.

On February 27, 1996, Andy Stern, SEIU's 45-year-old Organizing Director, announced he would run for the presidency of the union. The same day, Cordtz withdrew from the race and endorsed Stern. Bevona quietly withdrew his candidacy for secretary-treasurer a few weeks later.

Richard Cordtz retired as president of SEIU when delegates to the union's convention in Chicago elected Andy Stern the new president on April 23, 1996.

In retirement, Cordtz continued to serve as chairman of Labor's International Hall of Fame, which he had helped co-found in 1988.

Richard Cordtz died on November 20, 2006, at his home in Dearborn, Michigan. His wife and three children survived him.