SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- A longtime New York labor activist, writer and guiding intellectual at the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union has died. Gus Tyler was 99.

Jonathan Tilove (TY'-luv) says his uncle died in Sarasota, Fla., on Friday. He says he doesn't know the cause of death.

The Brooklyn-born Tyler became involved in Socialist Party politics at an early age. He worked as a writer for the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper before being hired by the garment workers' union, where he held a number of positions over more than four decades. He became assistant president of the union in 1945 and held the position until retiring in 1989.

Tyler was the author of several books on labor history and economics, including "The Political Imperative," "Scarcity" and "The Labor Revolution."