Born in Poland on April 2, 1910, Sol Stetin came to the United States in 1921. After one year of high school, Stetin found employment in a variety of entrepreneurial positions before going to work for the International Dye and Print Works in Paterson, New Jersey. His baptism into the union movement was by fire - the mid-1930s dyers strikes in Paterson. In 1933, he became a charter member of Local 1733 of the old United Textile Workers of America and was a founder of the Dyers Federation the following year. He served as Local 1733's representative on the Executive Board of the Dyers Federation, 1935-1937. In 1937, he went on the staff of the Federation and then the staff of TWOC. With TWUA he became South Jersey Joint Board Manager in 1940, then New Jersey State Director in 1943, Pennsylvania State Director in 1948, and Mid-Atlantic (Quin State) Regional Director in 1953. He was appointed to the Executive Council in 1944 when Carl Holderman resigned. He maintained his seat on the Council until 1968 when the Council elected him Secretary-Treasurer upon John Chupka's retirement from that post. He served in that office until 1972 when he was elected President of the TWUA. In 1976, he led the TWUA into merger with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and became, then, Senior Executive Vice President and head of the Textile Division in the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. Prior to this merger he held a seat on the Executive Board of the AFL-CIO and still sits on the Board of the Industrial Union Department. He has long been active in civic affairs and is very proud of the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters conferred upon him by Rutgers University in 1961.
