Max J. Osslo; Served as Official of Meat Cutters Union 46 Years

Max J. Osslo, who was known as much for his civic contributions as for his support of working people for more than half a century, died Tuesday in a convalescent hospital in Encinitas. He was 81.

Osslo, who came to California from Colorado in 1933, worked as a butcher in Coronado for three years before becoming an official of the local meat cutters union. At the time the local had fewer than 70 members. By the early 1970s the membership had risen to more than 3,000.

For 46 years, Osslo served as secretary and business manager of Local 229. He retired in 1982 and had lived recently in an Encinitas retirement home. Today the local is part of the United Food and Commercial Workers with 14,000 clerks and meat employees.

Osslo’s union activism stemmed from his concern over conditions he observed at a meatpacking plant that once operated in San Diego’s Bay Park district, said longtime friend Lionel Van Deerlin, a former congressman.

As a union official, he was instrumental in developing an apprenticeship program to train retail meat cutters, slaughterhouse workers and others to qualify for journeyman status.

In 1956, he was convicted of conspiracy to assault charges stemming from an altercation with a business agent of the Retail Clerks Union. The incident occurred during a dispute between the two unions.

Osslo received a full pardon for the offense in 1959 from then-Gov. Goodwin Knight.

“For many years, Max was the toughest and most intransigent labor leader in town,” Van Deerlin told the Associated Press. “During negotiations I would think he should let up, but he would hang on a bit longer and get what he was after.”

Osslo was honored by the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese in 1966 for both his labor leadership and service to the community, and in 1978 the Israeli government presented him with the Prime Minister’s Medal in recognition of his leadership in labor and civic affairs and his humanitarian contributions.

He served on the national board of the Leukemia Society as well as several United Way committees and during World War II served on the War Manpower Commission and the National War Labor Board. He also was a member of the state Board of Education under Gov. Earl Warren.

His wife, LaBelle, died in 1983.

Osslo is survived by a sister, Maxine Spencer of Mission Viejo, two nephews and a niece.

A funeral Mass is scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Brigid’s Church in San Diego.