LABOR: Public Workers' Powerhouse

At meetings of the AFL-CIO executive council, says one insider, the vote usually ranges from 25-to-l to 34-to-l, depending on how many other union chiefs are present to vote down Jerry Wurf. While that may be an exaggeration, the 54-year-old Wurf, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is certainly a maverick in the stolid hierarchy of organized labor. He has bucked the AFL-CIO high command on such issues as the 1972 election (Wurf was strong for George McGovern, while the federation observed a pro-Nixon neutrality) and the Viet Nam War (he repeatedly opposed council...