Missouri - In Memoriam: Joe Ames

Joe Ames

Photo Credit:  AFSCME Archives

St. Louis, Missouri

Joseph L. Ames, AFSCME’s former International secretary-treasurer, has died. He was 83.

Ames, who passed away June 17, took on the union’s second-highest post in 1968, having previously held the post of secretary-treasurer of AFSCME Local 410 in St. Louis, Mo. He served in that role until 1972.

He had also served on the International’s executive board, chaired the commission that rewrote AFSCME’s constitution (adopted in 1965) and helped establish the guidelines and precedents for the union’s Judicial Panel, which he also chaired. The panel decides challenges concerning the eligibility of nominees for office and other matters.

Pres. Gerald W. McEntee praised Ames as a “man whose vision of fairness and justice in the workplace extended beyond his own union to all workers.”