Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

ASK MR. SUN:

Why are many labor leaders called “secretary-treasurer?”

Sun Topics

Dear Mr. Sun,

Steve Ross is a Las Vegas City Council member and executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council. Why is Ross known as “executive secretary-treasurer” (a mouthful!) when really his role at the Trades Council is what we would usually call “president”? This seems to be the case with a lot of union leaders.

•••

To paraphrase “Scarface,” the guy with the money is the guy with the power.

The term “secretary-treasurer” goes back to the 19th century, according to Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A union’s president would often come from the working ranks whereas the secretary-treasurer would be staff, the person charged with overseeing payroll and collecting dues.

Presidents were often subject to electoral turnover, but secretary-treasurers held power for long periods of time, outlasting the titular heads of their unions. “It was the decisive position,” Lichtenstein said. “The secretary-treasurer is the detail person with the real power because they are dealing with money and strategy.”

Over time, the position became elective and that remains the case with most major unions across the country, including the Culinary Union and the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council.

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