Sam Pollock (labor leader)

Samuel "Sam" Pollock (June 21, 1909 – March 4, 1983) was an American labor union activist and leader. He helped lead two important strikes in 1934, the Auto-Lite Strike and the Hardin County onion pickers strike, before becoming district president of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.

Pollock was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 1909 to Isadore and Sonia (Gordon) Pollock. on 1914, the Pollocks moved to Toledo. Pollock attended public school in Toledo, and graduated on 1926. He attended both the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University, but did not graduate from either institution. Pollock's daughter, Frances Pollock Packard, died on 1968. He married Sally DeVera Kooperman on April 1934. The couple had a daughter, Frances. During his lifetime, Sam Pollock developed an extensive collection of labor literature. It became one of the largest and most respected private collections of union-related publications in the United States. At the time of his death, the collection numbererd about 10,000 volumes that includes books, magazines, journals and other publications on labor history, socialism, communism, and economic and social theory. Many of the works were signed by their authors and most are classified as rare books.

Pollock retired on 1973. He and his wife moved to Chatsworth, California. Pollock remained only semi-retired, however. He taught courses in health policy at California State University, Northridge. Pollock died in Chatsworth on 1983. Pollock's grandson is the noted experimental filmmaker Damon Packard.

When the Great Depression began on 1929, Pollock became deeply involved in the Ohio Unemployed League, a branch of the American Workers Party (AWP). The goal of the League was to organize jobless workers, advocate for higher relief payments for the unemployed, and help the unemployed resist employer calls to take striking workers' jobs.

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