Gus Bevona

Who was Gus Bevona?

Gus Bevona was an American labor leader who served starting in 1981 as head of Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees International Union, who helped his local's elevator operators and janitors who work in New York City commercial and residential buildings some of the best paid in the country. Bevona was chosen by Richard Cordtz as his running mate in the 1996 election for SEIU president, but Cordtz withdrew after Andy Stern entered the race and Bevona ended his candidacy for secretary-treasurer shortly thereafter. A substantial drop in the 1990s in the size of the local and criticism of his generous pay package as president of the local led to Bevona's resignation in 1999.

Bevona was born on October 20, 1940, and grew up Manhattan, where his father was suspected of having ties to organized crime. Bevona was hired as a filing clerk by the SEIU local, which had been founded in 1934 after a strike by 25 workers at a Seventh Avenue office building and had grown over the years to become one of the largest in the country.

A threatened strike by workers in apartment buildings in New York City was averted when the Realty Advisory Board that represented building owners agreed in April 1982 to give workers a $65 per week increase over the three-year term of the contract. Bevona called the deal "the best apartment-house contract" in the local's history.