[1] He graduated from high school, but rather than attending college he worked in a brass manufacturing plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and joined his first union.
[7] Cordtz retired from his position at the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO in 1991[8] but his departure from these and other posts — many of which provided him with an income — angered his critics, who accused him of double-dipping.
[2][3][11] Cordtz immediately announced that he would run in April 1996 for a full four-year term as SEIU president, but he ran into significant opposition from reformers in the union who felt he was too close to the "old guard" — white, male, highly paid, double-dipping officials who ran the union in an autocratic fashion.
[13] To improve his standing in the union, Cordtz adopted many of the militant tactics pioneered by Sweeney and other SEIU leaders.
For example, he blocked traffic on a busy San Francisco, California, street in mid-February 1996 to protest the anti-union activities of Vencor Corp., then the nation's second-largest nursing home chain and a target of a major SEIU organizing drive.
[16][17] Bevona suppressed opposition within the union, centralized authority and reduced democratic processes, engaged in a large number of legally- and ethically-questionable side-deals, and associated with known organized crime figures.
[17][18] By 1996, his salary had ballooned to nearly $450,000 a year, and the New York City press had revealed that he had built himself a palatial office and lived in a union-owned penthouse rent-free.
[24] In retirement, Cordtz continued to serve as chairman of Labor's International Hall of Fame, which he had helped co-found in 1988.