Harvey Kitzman, well-known labor and Wisconsin Democratic Party political leader, was born on a farm near Big Falls in Waupaca County, Wisconsin in 1906. After finishing the eighth grade Kitzman went to work on the farm and at age seventeen began a career as a baseball pitcher for the Norfolk team in the Nebraska State League. This developing career ended, however, two years later after Kitzman broke his arm in an automobile accident.
Kitzman returned to Wisconsin where he went to work at the Ajax Automobile Co. plant in Racine. In January 1929 he went to work at the J.I. Case Company plant. Kitzman's experiences at this plant, which was unorganized and adamantly anti-union, led him to a prominent role in the Wisconsin labor movement and to leadership of some of the longest and most bitter strikes in Wisconsin history.
During the Depression years from 1930 to 1932 Kitzman was unemployed and active in the Racine County Workers Committee which was concerned with improving the relief situation. Later he helped reorganize this committee into the independent Wisconsin Industrial Union. After a brief affiliation with the AFL, this union affiliated with the United Auto Workers in 1936. In 1937 Kitzman organized UAW Local 180 at J.I. Case Co., and he was elected the local's president, a position which he continued to hold for the next decade.
In 1939 at the suggestion of Walter Reuther, Kitzman ran for president of the Wisconsin CIO in an attempt to counter its Communist-dominated leadership. He served two terms in this post but did not run for re-election in 1941. Kitzman also served two terms as president of the Wisconsin UAW District Council No. 1. In 1947 he resigned from his state and local positions to establish the UAW Farm Implement Department in Chicago. In 1949 he was elected director of the newly-formed UAW District 10 which encompassed Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming and which represented over 50,000 members. At the same time Kitzman also served on the International's executive board.
During the 1950s the strike against the Kohler Company, which lasted from 1954 to 1960, took much of Kitzman's time. Legal disputes arising from that strike continued for five more years.
In addition to his union activities, Kitzman was active in Wisconsin Democratic politics, serving as a delegate to the 1948 meeting at which the new Wisconsin Democratic Party was organized and as a member of the Administrative committee for many years. Kitzman was selected as a delegate to several national Democratic conventions and he was an associate and friend of many national Democratic Party leaders. He was also active in the community, serving on the Vocational School Board and as chairman of the Racine Fire and Police Commission during the time of his residence in that community.
Harvey Kitzman died on August 1, 1977 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He was survived by four children and by his wife Norma.
