W. C. (Bill) Demers; Ex-Labor Leader
W. C. (Bill) Demers, former international vice president of the Communications Workers of America and president of its Los Angeles Local 9400, has died. He was 72.
Demers died of a heart attack last Saturday morning while he was playing poker at the Horseshoe Club in Gardena, a union spokeswoman said..
When he headed the union’s local district in the 1980s, the union he helped to build included 600,000 members nationwide and more than 100,000 in California.
Demers served as vice president of the California State Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and vice president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
He also received gubernatorial appointments to the California Commission on Industrial Innovation and the state Employees Advisory Committee on Pension Investments.
A liberal Democrat, Demers was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee and a delegate to Democratic national conventions. He was also active in the American Civil Liberties Union and, during his residence in Little Rock, Ark., in the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
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