Ron Cohen, former Labor Review editor, MN AFL-CIO communications director, dies at 91

By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor

MINNEAPOLIS — The life of longtime labor communicator Ron Cohen will be celebrated Wednesday, March 19 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. at the Minnesota AFL-CIO, 175 Aurora Ave., St. Paul. Cohen died September 28, 2024 at the age of 91.

Cohen was a former communications director for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, former editor of the Minneapolis Labor Review, and former American Postal Workers Union member and editor of the Minneapolis local’s newsletter.

The first issue of the Labor Review listing Cohen as editor was published May 2, 1968. Cohen had been a Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council delegate for two years, representing Local 125 of the postal workers, and had been editor of his local’s newsletter, The Northern Light.

Cohen took over as Labor Review editor right inbetween the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

Cohen served as Labor Review editor through the January 1, 1975 issue, when he left to join the staff of the Minnesota AFL-CIO at the invitation of then-president Dave Roe. Cohen first served as director of research, then as communications director. Cohen retired from the Minnesota AFL-CIO in 1993.

In 2007, Cohen contributed a story for the Labor Review 100th anniversary history series, “McCarthy’s campaign in 1968: new DFL activists battled labor,” recounting local political struggles between young supporters of anti-Vietnam war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy and supporters of Hubert Humphrey.

Friends remembered Cohen for his intellect, wide ranging-interests, and for being something of a curmudgeon on the exterior— but with a loving heart inside.

“He had a mind like a trap for information and history… always with a sense of humor,” recalled Bill Moore, who succeeded Cohen as communications director at the Minnesota AFL-CIO. “I would always call him up if I needed advice. He was a good source of counsel.”

“He had a keen sense of politics and he stayed up-to-date,” recalled John See,  who first met Cohen in 1986 when See joined the staff of the U of M’s Labor Education Service. See worked closely with Cohen to produce “Minnesota at Work,” a weekly cable television program reporting on the state’s labor movement.

Pat Guernsey, longtime president of AFSCME Local 552, was a young teen when his mother dated Cohen. He recalled visiting Cohen’s Chicago Ave. apartment. “There were bookshelves everywhere. He had thousands of books.”

Ronald Greengard Cohen spent his early years in northern Minnesota. Next door neighbors in Hibbing: the Zimmerman family. Cohen knew the younger Bobby Zimmerman, who went on to fame as Bob Dylan.

After graduating from Washburn High in Minneapolis in 1952, Cohen served in the U.S. army during the Korean war, stationed in Europe, and attended the University of Minnesota on the G.I. Bill. Cohen’s remains will be interred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.