a LIFETIME of FAITHFUL SERVICE to ORGANIZED LABOR
STEVE A. PARA
President of TENNESSEE STATE LABOR COUNCIL
The Words of a Man…
“No other organization in history has done so much to raise the living standards and protect the rights of the working people as has Organized Labor. It has been my good fortune to spend most of my life in the Labor Movement. For whatever small contributions I may have made, or whatever leadership I may have given to this great cause, I am deeply grateful for having had the privilege to do so.”
These are the words of a man who for fifty-one years has faithfully served Organized Labor in Tennessee…these are the words of Steve A. Para, President of the Tennessee Labor Council.
Up Through the Union Ranks…
The story of Steve Para began in Memphis where he was born and grew up. As a boy of 15, working in a printing and binding plant, Para joined the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders in 1912. Leaving the printing trades to work for the Illinois Central Railroad, in 1917 he became a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
Then came World War I. Para served his country in the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.
After the war he came back to Memphis where he again worked as a brakeman, and later as a conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad.
Para came up through the ranks of his union, serving as chairman of the local grievance committee and as secretary of the general grievance committee from 1927 through 1930. In 1933 he was elected local legislative representative, and a member of the State BRT Legislative Board.
Para was elected State Legislative Representative for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in 1940, and for the last 23 years he has been the voice of the BRT in the Tennessee Legislature.
In 1943 he became a member of the National Legislative Conference of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and in 1960 was elected vice-chairman of the conference.
To President of Tennessee Labor Council…
Elected First Vice-President of the Tennessee State Labor Council in the 1959 biennial convention, Para became President in 1960 when then President Stanton Smith resigned to become AFL-CIO Coordinator of State and Local Central Bodies.
Without opposition and by acclamation, Para was reelected President of the State Labor Council in the 1961 state convention.
During his years of service and leadership in Organized Labor, Para’s ability and experience have been widely recognized and utilized by appointments to a wide variety of boards and committees. To list but a few, he has served as a member of:
Regional Labor-Management Manpower Commission, U.S. Department of Labor
Advisory Committee to the Department of Employment Security (1952-63)
Executive Board of Citizens for TVA (1950-58)
White House Highway Safety Committee (1952-58)
Governor’s Emergency Committee on Traffic Safety (1952-63)
State Committee of Cancer Fund (1953)
Board of Tennessee Hospital Association (1948)
The Para Family…
Para married Virginia (Minnie) Richards of Memphis in 1927. They have a son and three grandchildren. The Paras now live at 222 Sequoyah Trail, Hendersonville, a few miles northeast of Nashville.
Steve is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Elks Club.
Progress With Para…
During the three years Steve Para has been President of the Tennessee State Labor Council, the Council has made greater progress and gained more prestige than in any other period in its history.
In 1960 a few months after Para became president, COPE-endorsed Senator Estes Kefauver won a landslide victory over “Tip” Taylor. The campaign conducted by the State Labor Council through the city central bodies and the local unions was credited by Senator Kefauver as well as other state political leaders as being a major factor in the Kefauver victory.
As a result of the strong support which President Para gave to the program, the 1961 biennial convention of the Tennessee State Labor Council by a near unanimous vote adopted the Program of Progress with the $1.00 per member per year dedicated assessment to finance the program. Under the Program of Progress and under the leadership of President Para, the Tennessee State Labor Council can become in the next few years the most powerful political force in the state.
A special convention of the State Labor Council in April 1962, by an overwhelming majority, endorsed Chattanooga Mayor P.R. Olgiati for Governor in the Democratic Primary. Olgiati, a member of the Bricklayers Union, had for years been an active and able leader in the Chattanooga Labor Movement. The State Council financed a major portion of the Olgiati campaign as well as much of the campaign organization and direction. Tagged by the conservative Clement forces as the “Liberal Labor Candidate”, Olgiati was able to develop very little support outside of Organized Labor. But Olgiati ran second, receiving over 211,000 votes! President Para and the State Labor Council proved to the state political leaders for the first time that Organized Labor could put a candidate into the governor’s race, finance that candidate and conduct a campaign that would produce over 211,000 votes. The State Labor Council gained greater prestige politically from it’s support of Olgiati that it had ever achieved before. In no other Southern state has Labor demonstrated the political strength that it did in Tennessee in 1962 under the leadership of Steve Para.
Opinions of Others…
Another measure of a man is the opinions of those who know him best.
“I have known Steve Para for a lot of years. He and I have not always been on the same side of the fence in BRT politics. But whether he is for you or against you, he is able, fair, honest and devoted to the Union. We need more Steve Paras in Labor.”-An opinion of a member of Para’s BRT Lodge in Memphis
“If Satan himself were endorsed by Organized Labor, then Para would do his best to elect him.”-The words of a state political leader describing Para’s loyalty and fidelity to the State Labor Council
“No other man in this state has given more of his life and is more dedicated to the cause of the Labor Movement than Steve Para.”-A tribute from an AFL-CIO officer
“There are certain political king-makers in this state who don’t like Para, because they can’t make him their ‘Judas Goat’ to lead Labor into their political pens. They would like to see Para defeated in the State Council Conventions.”-The comment of a political reporter on a large Tennessee paper
A Final Word…
“This I believe”, says Steve Para, President of the Tennessee State Labor Council:
“The Tennessee State Labor Council belongs to the union members of Tennessee. Their economic and political welfare must be the major concern of the officers of this council. Their will must be our command…
“When a convention of the Tennessee State Labor Council makes a decision, then each officer of the council should carry out that decision or resign…
“The Tennessee State Labor Council must never become the tool of any politician or any political clique. As long as I am president, I will fight with all the power of this office to keep our council free from such outside political domination.”
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