In the United States, most streets that aren’t named for trees are named for presidents, pioneers, and prominent citizens. Union leaders have almost never gotten that public honor. Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers, was the rare exception, with more than 30 streets named after him, most in California. By comparison, there appear to be no streets named for Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor. With Cesar Chavez streets coming down now in response to posthumous revelations of sexual misconduct, here are some labor leader boulevards that remain:
- George Meany, Plumber’s Union leader and later president of the AFL and its merged successor organization the AFL-CIO for 26 years, has a one-block stretch in the Queens borough of his native New York City named after him, just outside the Plumbers Local 1 hall.
- Walter P. Reuther, the famed leader of the United Auto Workers, is the official namesake of the I-696 freeway in Detroit, Michigan.
- A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a famed civil rights activist, has a boulevard named after him in Jacksonville, Florida, as well as a street in his native Crescent City, Florida, and co-named status on 145th Street in Harlem, New York City.
- Harry Bridges, the legendary leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, has a boulevard named in his honor in Wilmington, California, right along the edge of the Port of Long Beach.
