Rites Set for Pioneer Labor Leader Max J. Osslo

Visitation will be Thursday for retired labor leader Max J. Osslo, who died Tuesday at Rancho Encinitas Convalescent Hospital. He was 81.

Osslo was secretary and business manager of Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen Union, Local 229, from 1936 until he retired in 1982. The Meat Cutters merged with the Retail Clerks Union to become the United Food & Commercial Workers in 1979. Local 229 became part of Local 135, representing 14,000 meat employees and clerks in the San Diego County food industry.

He also headed the Western Federation of Butchers, which represents butchers in the western states and he was vice president of the organization’s international union.

“Osslo was a dominant force in the growth and prosperity of the labor movement dating back to the Great Depression,” said Jim McVicar, spokesman for the local union.

“He was known to fellow unionists and management representatives alike as a tough, but fair negotiator, who would drive a hard bargain, but never back down on his word.”

Of all his achievements and activities, Osslo was proudest of his affiliation with the Meat Cutters Union, McVicar said. The union had fewer than 70 members in 1933 when he came to San Diego from his native Colorado and entered the trade. By the early ‘70s, the membership rolls had risen to more than 3,000.

Osslo also helped establish California’s first formal training program for meat cutters in 1938. The program evolved into the apprenticeship program that exists today, McVicar said.

He was particularly proud of his efforts in opening the union’s Mission Valley building, which included an enclosed swimming pool for union members and youth groups. The pool was also used by English Channel swimmer Florence Chadwick as a teaching facility before it was later closed because of the expense of maintaining it, McVicar said.

Osslo was also active in civic and charitable affairs until failing health slowed his pace in the early 1980s, McVicar said. He co-founded the San Diego Chapter of the Leukemia Society with his close friend and Teamsters Union leader, John S. Lyons, and participated in United Way campaigns.

A longtime member of St. Brigid Catholic Church in Pacific Beach, he was active in the church’s charitable and fund-raising activities.

Osslo is survived by his sister, Maxine Spencer of Mission Viejo.

Thursday’s visitation for friends and relatives will be held at Pacific Beach Mortuary, 4710 Cass St. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday at the church, 4735 Cass St. Private entombment will be at Holy Cross Mausoleum.

Instead of flowers, the family requests donations to the Alzheimer’s Assn. or Leukemia Society.