Mother Jones: The Photos That Helped End Child Labor in the United States

[Omaha Steve]

5. My dad was 11 when he placed the dynamite in the rock quarry

From 2008: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x11906

http://blogs.denverpost.com/lewis/2008/06/15/unions-mak...

Mr. Lewis,

This is in response to your article today “Grinding axes over unions”.
I’m witting from Nebraska. We are a right to work state. I’m the son of
a scab. My father was 11 years old in 1931 and quit school to support
his family during the depression. He was one of fourteen children. My
grandfather was in jail for bootlegging. (He was also a bigamist). My
dad crossed the picket line. He was working a quarry in Southern
Indiana. The company used young children to place explosive charges deep
in small holes from a drill. On his way home one night, several out of
work men taught a young boy why he should have stayed in school and
shouldn’t cross the line.

Although after W.W.II my father worked in a union shop in Omaha for 32
years, he never joined. He had good pay and benefits for a third grade
education. He didn’t like it when in 1980 I started organizing for the
GAU in a non-union print shop. I was fired once the company felt I had
the votes to get the union in. While my case wound through the system
for over three and a half years, my wife’s union wages at US West keep
us from starving. The best work a union trouble maker could find during
that time was a paid picket for ten weeks in the Omaha area Hinky Dinky
stores strike.

My case file:
http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/Board%20Decisions/261/...

My story doesn’t end here. On February 20th last year I was fired in
blatant retaliation for filing an ADA complaint against my employer.
Because a contract was in force, my case moved much faster this time.
Five days before a scheduled arbitration hearing, I was offered
reinstatement with back pay and wages on June twentieth. Four months. My
union paid all the legal fees (approximately $5,000) and asked nothing
in return.

I can’t understand people not wanting to pay union dues. When your
outside looking in, things are much different. I don’t feel what my
father did all those years was right. He did earn a retirement, decent
wage, and more. His experience from 1931 had nothing to do with his
career in Omaha. The right to work law weakens unions. Just as it was
designed to do in 1947. Nebraska was one of the first states to use
right to work in 1947.

Regards,

Steven L Dawes
Shop Steward AFSCME local 251

See these also,

Where are the victims of unions?: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Grinding axes over unions: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...