California labor leader Jack Henning dies at 93

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jack Henning, a pioneering leader of California’s labor movement who served under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, has died at his home in San Francisco. He was 93.

Henning served 26 years as executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which represents more than 2 million workers.

One of Henning’s sons, Patrick, director of the California Employment Development Department, said his father died in his sleep early Thursday.

“He was kind and challenging to his seven children about the need to be involved in social justice issues,” Patrick Henning, 63, said in a telephone interview. “He’s a devout Catholic and worked very well with Republicans and Democrats.”

Jack Henning served as undersecretary of labor under President Kennedy and later was appointed by President Johnson as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.

After returning to California, he became leader of the labor federation in 1970 and five years later helped the United Farm Workers campaign for passage of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Act. He fought to restore the state’s worker safety agency in 1988 after it was abolished by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

Henning, a native of San Francisco, began his career in the labor movement in 1938 working with the Association of Catholic Unionists in San Francisco. Former Gov. Pat Brown named him director of the state Department of Industrial Relations in 1959.

He served as a University of California regent from 1977 to 1989, according to the UC’s Web site. Labor officials credited Henning with fighting for affirmative action and getting the university to divest from South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.

Democratic leaders said the state has lost one of its great leaders.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California state lawmaker and member of Congress, called Henning a friend.

“He was a man of modest means, with a thirst for knowledge and a tremendous sense of compassion for his fellow man,” Solis said in a statement.

Funeral services have not been scheduled.