UPDATED- Sunday, March 31, 2019- Dan’s obituary has been published at the Minneapolis StarTribune. Remembrances can be shared there as well. Funeral Service is at 1PM Saturday, April 6th, 2019 at Washburn-McReavy Glen Haven Memorial Gardens with visitation 2 hours before the service from 11AM-1PM. Private interment will be at Fort Snelling.
Washburn-McReavy.com Glen Haven Chapel 763-533-8643 5125 W. Broadway, Crystal.
Minnesota’s Labor Movement is saddened to learn of the death of MN AFL-CIO President Emeritus Dan Gustafson Thursday evening, March 21. Gustafson served as the State Labor Federation’s President from 1985 to 1990 and Secretary-Treasurer from 1978 to 1984.
“Minnesota’s Labor movement has lost a true champion for working people,” said current Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy. “When big business tried to weaken Minnesota’s workers compensation system and labor protections in the 1980s, Dan Gustafson led the effort that stopped those attacks.”
Entering the Labor Movement in 1947 as a member of the Plasterers Union, Gustafson was elected to lead the Minneapolis Building & Construction Trades Council in the 1960s. While in Minneapolis, Gustafson was instrumental in founding Union Bank & Trust.
“Union members represent a major element of the economy but the labor movement is left out of the financial decisions made by the community,” Gustafson told the Minneapolis Labor Review in November 1974. “We create the industrial wealth, build the towns, but someone else always handles the money.”
Funeral details are currently pending.