Gus Tyler, a longtime labor activist died June 3, 2011, in Sarasota, Fla. He was 99.
Tyler worked for more than 40 years for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union — serving in various capacities, including as political director, director of education and assistant president. A 1988 Newsday profile of Tyler said that his tenure at the ILGWU “helped make the union one of the most progressive and enlightened in organized labor,” and his prolific writing gave “labor and democratic socialism a cerebral underpinning that speaks louder than rants and posturing.”
Tyler authored more than a dozen books, including a history of the ILGWU, and contributed to such magazines as The New Leader and Dissent.
Born Augustus Tilove to immigrant parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., he would change his last name to Tyler —in honor of Wat Tyler,the leader of a 14th-century English peasant rebellion. Tyler, who lived for many years in Great Neck, N.Y., is survived by two children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren; he was predeceased by his wife of more than 60 years, Marie Tyler.
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