To those who knew him as a Chicago building inspector and labor official, Gerald McHugh could be tough. His career highlights include waging a fierce fight to lead the powerful bricklayers union and organizing a successful hotel employee strike that persuaded entertainer Bob Hope not to cross the picket line.
But to his close friends and family Mr. McHugh was an old softie, a legendary storyteller and, most of all, a fan of jazz. His son Michael said his father often shared memories of visiting South Side music joints in the 1950s with his future wife to hear Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra.
“He and Joe were good friends, and there was one time that Joe yelled out, `Hey, Jerry, what do you want to hear tonight?’ He was there with my mom, so he asked them to play `Here’s to My Lady,'” his son said. “He just had a big heart.”
Mr. McHugh, 74, a longtime Chicago resident who later lived in Cary, died Sunday, May 21, in Northwestern Memorial Hospital of pulmonary fibrosis, a terminal lung disorder, according to his son.
James Strong, a former Tribune reporter who covered labor unions, said Mr. McHugh made headlines in Chicago in the mid-1950s when he became the youngest building inspector to be appointed by then-Mayor Richard J. Daley. Yet, for Mr. McHugh, the long career that followed as a labor official wasn’t about power and politics, Strong said. It was about helping people.
“He was typical of many Irish-Americans in Chicago who worked and rose through the ranks in the city’s labor movement. He wasn’t one of the powerbrokers, but he made his mark just the same,” said Strong. “With Jerry, it was all about helping. It’s impossible to count the number of people he helped in either finding work or keeping their jobs.”
Mr. McHugh, who was born in Chicago graduated from St. Patrick High School and served in the Navy during the Korean War. He returned to Chicago to become a bricklayer and became a building inspector.
In 1971, Mr. McHugh resigned from the Buildings Department to run for president of the 5,000-member Local 21 of the Bricklayers and Stone Masons Union.
The race was an intense battle for leadership of the nation’s largest local bricklayers union, which at the time was dominated by longtime labor boss Edward Joyce. In his campaign, Mr. McHugh charged union officers with “overtime favoritism,” the practice of allowing certain members to work overtime while large numbers of bricklayers were unemployed. Mr. McHugh also attacked the union’s pension plan and called for broader benefits and less restrictive qualifications to cover more retired members.
Though he lost the election, Mr. McHugh went on to become an organizer for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, working in Chicago and across the nation in California, Nevada and Washington, D.C.
In a climate hostile to unions during the early 1980s, he waged a strike against Del Webb Corp.’s Sahara Tahoe Hotel and Casino by orchestrating an informational picket at the hotel’s Atlantic City property.
Several entertainers, including Helen Reddy, Engelbert Humperdinck, Liberace, Suzanne Somers and Doug Henning, crossed the picket line at the Sahara Tahoe. But, according to Strong, Bob Hope refused. The dispute was soon settled.
“Jerry ran some pretty successful strikes,” said Strong. “He was very charismatic with a great sense of humor. He had a lot of charm, a lot of wit.”
After 25 years with the hotel employees union, he retired as a vice president at large.
Mr. McHugh spent his later years playing golf and traveling.
“He was just a hard-working person who enjoyed people. I think that’s what made him so successful,” his friend said.
Mr. McHugh is survived by his wife, Michaela O’Donnell; a sister, Mary Norton; a brother, Thomas; three other sons, Jerry Jr., Matthew and Daniel; a daughter, Anne Klessen; and three grandchildren. Services have been held.
