American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), District Council 37 Graphics

District Council 37 was chartered by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in November 1944, bringing together a group of small locals representing municipal employees of New York City. The Council began achieving significant growth after the arrival, in 1947, of Executive Director Jerry Wurf. Over the next five years, DC 37 formed 55 new locals or organizing committees. The union continued to grow through organizing, mergers, and consolidation. By 1957, the Council claimed a membership of 25,000 members in 33 city agencies and departments. The 1950s and early 1960s also witnessed increasing militancy on the part of DC 37 members, as workers struck at numerous city agencies.

When Wurf left DC 37 in 1964 to become president of AFSCME, his deputy, Calogero Taibi, became executive director. Taibi soon resigned due to ill health, however, and Victor Gotbaum (b. 1921), a Chicago-based AFSCME representative, stepped in to lead DC 37. In his first few years as Executive Director, Gotbaum dealt with a 28-day strike in 1965 by members working as caseworkers and in other capacities for New York City's Welfare Department, and the passing of New York State's Taylor Law in 1967, which prohibits state employees from striking. Gotbaum brought with him from Chicago a talented organizer, Lillian Roberts (b. 1928), who had been a nurse's aide and vocal shop steward prior to joining Gotbaum's AFSCME staff in Illinois. Roberts' success in organizing nurses' aides in city hospitals for DC 37's Local 420 helped to put the Council over the threshold needed for a citywide majority of career and salary plan employees, and membership surpassed 50,000 in 1967. Roberts was appointed Associate Director of the union in 1968.

DC 37 dealt with major challenges in the 1970s as New York City descended into a deep fiscal crisis, in which municipal workers suffered layoffs, wage freezes, and benefit reductions. In spite of these difficult years, DC 37 nevertheless managed to surpass the 100,000-member mark in 1975.

The 1980s witnessed significant leadership changes at DC 37. In 1986, Victor Gotbaum retired after twenty-one years as Executive Director, during which time DC 37 had become the country's largest union of municipal workers. He was succeeded by Local 371 SSEU leader Stanley Hill.

The Council faced some difficult challenges in the late 1990s, when investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney revealed multiple instances of corruption inside the Council and its locals. AFSCME placed DC 37 in a trusteeship and Stanley Hill took a leave of absence in December 1998 and retired in early 1999. In 2002, Lillian Roberts was elected to serve as Executive Director of DC 37, returning after a twenty-year absence. Her election ended the trusteeship of DC 37 and returned control of the Council to its executive director, executive board, and delegates.

Throughout its history, DC 37 has actively embraced social movement unionism by linking its struggles for higher wages and benefits to other economic, social, and political issues. DC 37 sent a large delegation to the March on Washington in August 1963, and participated in numerous other demonstrations against segregation and discrimination; the Council and its members also protested against the Vietnam War.

In the 1980s, the Council continued its social activism, taking a leading role in convincing New York City's pension system to divest itself of stocks from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. Recognizing its diverse membership demographics, DC 37 began union-wide celebrations of Black History Month, recognized other ethnic groups, and formed a Disability Advisory Committee in 1982, followed by activities for Women's History Month, a public stance in favor of gay rights, and programs for Puerto Rican Heritage.