PAUL TEAGUE

1926 - 2001

An untiring organizer and union leader, Paul Teague has served the International Union of Operating Engineers for more than fifty-three years, raising the union’s profile in the collective bargaining and civil rights arenas. 

Born in Oklahoma but moved to Borger, Texas shortly thereafter, Teague became a business agent at the age of 21 and an international representative two years later. He visited all corners of Texas and other southern states, handling organizing, contract administration and arbitration cases under the direction of Dutch Reinhard. 

When dissident union members in Texas City attempted to secede from IUOE in 1958, Teague persuaded the union to remain affiliated. He remained as Business Manager of Local 347, where his responsibilities expanded. 

Taegue, who served as a Texas AFL-CIO Vice President, attended a meeting in which President Kennedy asked union leaders to pledge to work for civil rights. He honored that pledge and became the first recipient of the Johnnie Henderson Award, named for a prominent civil rights leader who is also in the Texas Labor Hall of Fame. 

Through retired as a union officer, Teague remains active in union and Democratic Party affairs. Among his more recent accomplishments: graduating from the Harvard Trade Union Program with honors.