Joseph Mazzola; Chief of S.F. Plumbers Union

Joseph Mazzola, 72, powerful leader of San Francisco’s plumbers union for more than four decades, has died in an auto accident while deer hunting on his ranch at Clear Lake in Lake County.

Mazzola, who lived in San Francisco, was driving a Jeep when it apparently jumped out of gear, hit a rock and rolled over him early Saturday, according to Earl Whitmore, general manager of a nearby resort.

The resort is owned by Mazzola’s Plumbers and Pipe Fitting Industry Union, Local 38. Whitmore said a passenger, San Francisco real estate dealer and restaurateur Cal Rossi, was ejected from the vehicle but managed to walk to the resort to summon help.

Mazzola began his career as a labor leader in 1941 when he was elected business agent of the Marine Union of the Shipyard Workers, representing 20,000 workers repairing ships along San Francisco’s bustling wartime waterfront.

After that union merged with the plumbers and pipe fitters in 1947, Mazzola was elected leader of the larger union.

“No labor leader in any city has done for his men what Joe Mazzola has done for his,” former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto said.

Alioto had appointed Mazzola to three commissions: the San Francisco Housing Authority, the Golden Gate Bridge District and the Airports Commission.

He was removed from the Airports Commission for “official misconduct” after Alioto’s successor, the late George Moscone, claimed Mazzola “aided” an illegal 38-day, citywide strike in 1976. The strike disrupted operations at San Francisco International Airport. The ruling, which prevented Mazzola from holding elective or appointive public office, was later overturned by an appellate court.

Mazzola is survived by his wife, Vera; son, Larry; daughter, JoAnne Kennedy, and five grandchildren.