In late 1980 the Rockefeller Foundation granted to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin money to support a project to collect oral remembrances of individuals involved in industrial union organizing in Wisconsin. This interview with George W. Hall is part of that project.
George W. Hall was born on April 16, 1904, in Millston (Jackson County), Wisconsin. His early childhood was spent on a farm. Then the family moved to Sparta where George began helping provide support for his brother and sister. He first hired out as a farm hand when he was 14 years old. He took his first factory job when he was 18 at the Fiore Tobacco Factory in La Crosse where his mother was working. Several factory jobs followed, but Hall was not happy with factory work. In 1922 he moved to Chicago to fulfill a childhood interest in drawing by studying interior decorating. After four years of art school there, he returned to La Crosse as a contractor in painting and interior decorating. In 1927 he was approached by the members of the International Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators, and Paperhangers of America to join the union. He chose to accept journeyman status while in fact working as a partner with another contractor. He quickly worked his way into leadership positions in the union.
From his work in his local, he moved on to being delegate, then paid representative of the La Crosse Central Labor Council. He also received some support, in the form of gasoline money, for work he did for the Building Trades Council. He was extremely active organizing among groups including police, communication workers, garment workers and bank employees. His work in La Crosse was quite broad and included negotiating and writing contracts, applying for charters, managing the Labor Temple and publishing the annual Labor Day booklet.
Hall was first elected to the Executive Board of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor in 1939 at the Wausau convention. When William Nagorsne died in 1951, Hall was asked by WSFL leaders, including George Haberman, to run for Secretary-Treasurer. He agreed, was elected at the Superior convention and, as Secretary-Treasurer, became principal lobbyist in Madison for the WSFL for the duration of his 20-year term. He was referred to as the “people's lobbyist” because of his dedication to the concerns of working people and was generally liked as a lobbyist because of his non-partisan philosophy. He received a commemorative plaque from the Senate and the Assembly for his work at the Capitol.
Dedication to the concerns of working people has been the central focus of Hall's life. To him that is what being a labor leader requires; those leaders he most respects were those closest to the worker, men like Frank Weber and Henry Ohl. He expresses concern that today there are many among the rank and file who have no sense of pride in the work of their union, and that some labor leaders have drifted away from this basic objective of the labor movement. Loyalty is also a highly prized value, which at times can override issues of corruption.
Today George Hall lives with his adopted sister, Betty Radey, and her husband on the bay just outside the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is an avid organic gardener, and through canning and freezing provides all of the family's vegetables for the year. Earlier, in La Crosse, he was active in many organizations including Boy Scouts, state court and university reorganization committees, and the Chamber of Commerce. He is still an active member of the State AFL-CIO Conservation Committee and only recently stepped down from the State Board of Vocational Education. At the age of 77, he is still a vibrant, active, and warm person. He prides himself in having missed only one hunting season since he was 12 years old.
