Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
The man from Butte
IN THE SPOTLIGHT this week are two unionists of the past who de-
serve being on the Labor Honor Roll. This column started the Labor Honor
Roll to acquaint readers with unionists whose roles in the labor movement
took place before the Labor Hall of Fame was started in 1997 by the North-
west Oregon Labor Retirees Council. The Retirees Council established the
Labor Hall of Fame to honor retired labor union members while still living.
This edition’s honorees are Jim Leary, a
Portland-based official of the national
AFL-CIO who retired in 1973 and died in
1985; and Celia Boggs, a life member of
Portland Service Employees Local 49 who
was 105 years old at the time of her death
in 1989.
JAMES JOSEPH LEARY was born
in Butte, Montana, in 1908 and began his
working career at age six selling newspa-
pers on a downtown street corner in his na-
tive city. The Anaconda Copper Mining
Company ruled Butte and most of Montana
like an economic fiefdom. Jim once told
me that as a newsboy he joined what he
called “the old Newsboys Union.” Later he
joined the Industrial Workers of the World,
JAMES LEARY
known as the Wobblies.
At age 16, Leary went to work in the copper mines and at 28 he was
elected president of Miners Union No. 1. Four years later, at age 32 in 1940,
Leary was elected secretary-treasurer of the International Union of Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers. Holding that union post also gained him a seat on
the national executive board of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO). While holding those two offices, Leary participated in union organ-
izing campaigns throughout the United States and Canada.
IN WORLD WAR II, Leary was appointed to a regional War Labor
Board and a regional War Manpower Commission. A personal highlight of
his federal service was a meeting with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Democrat FDR was the only U.S. president to be elected to four terms; he
held the office from 1933 until his death in 1945.
In 1947, Leary ran for international president of the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers with the pledge that if elected he would clean out the Com-
munists from the union. He lost by a narrow margin. The union was later
expelled from the CIO.
IN 1951 AND ‘52, Leary represented the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions as a delegate to the United Nations Economic and Social
Council. Also in the early 1950s, he was appointed as a staff representative
of the CIO. After the 1955 national merger of the American Federation of La-
bor (AFL) and the CIO, Leary was appointed director of organizing for Mon-
tana and Idaho. He held that job until 1964 when he was transferred to Port-
land to become assistant director of AFL-CIO Region 21, covering Oregon,
Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. AFL-CIO President George
Meany appointed Leary as regional director in 1965 upon the retirement of
Claude Shaffer.
Leary’s AFL-CIO regional office was on the second floor of the Portland
Labor Center next door to the Labor Press office, so we became well-ac-
quainted. (The Labor Center, at 201 SW Arthur St., served as labor’s home
from 1966 until 1978 when a bank foreclosed on it.)
Anti-union lawyer called
on to head federal OSHA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partner
in one of the nation’s largest anti-union
law firms was confirmed by the U.S.
Senate March 13 to head the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Ad-
ministration (OSHA).
Edwin G. Foulke Jr. of the law firm
Jackson Lewis LLP was nominated by
President George W. Bush last Septem-
ber and was confirmed last month on a
voice vote in the Senate.
Foulke replaces Jonathan Snare,
who has served as interim administra-
tor since January 2005. OSHA has op-
erated without a permanent administra-
tor since December 2004, when John
Henshaw resigned from the post.
Snare will remains as OSHA’s
deputy assistant secretary.
Prior to his nomination, Foulke
worked at Jackson Lewis’ Greenville,
South Carolina, office.
Jackson Lewis represents manage-
ment exclusively in labor, employment
and immigration law. It has nearly 400
attorneys in 21 offices nationwide. One
of its specialities is defending busi-
nesses fined by OSHA for unsafe work-
places.
Foulke chaired the law firm’s OSHA
practice group and served as a member
of the Society for Human Resource
Management’s panel on workplace
health, safety and security. Prior to join-
ing Jackson Lewis in 1995, he was
chairman of the Occupational Safety
and Health Review Commission.
On Jackson Lewis’ Web site, the
company promotes itself by stating:
“When a business is subjected to an
OSHA inspection, Jackson Lewis pro-
vides the necessary representation to
ensure the rights of the client are fully
protected. In cases where an employer
is subject to criminal or civil legal ac-
tion based on alleged violations, we
provide the expertise to defend the alle-
gations.
“We have extensive agency experi-
ence at the national and regional levels
to enter into settlement negotiations,
and the expertise to contest citations be-
fore the Occupational Safety and Health
Review Commission, all state safety
and health commissions, and in federal
and state court review proceedings.”
Jackson Lewis also promotes itself
as a leader in “union avoidance.” Its
Web site says the law firm “engages as-
sisting many employers in winning
NLRB (National Labor Relations
Board) elections “or in avoiding union
elections altogether.”
“The preservation of management
rights is our goal, whether prior to a
union offensive, during a union-organ-
izing campaign or in collective bargain-
ing negotiations.”
Foulke received a strong endorse-
ment from Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.,
who is chairman of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Com-
mittee and a proponent of OSHA “re-
form.” Enzi has a 9 percent Committee
on Political Education voting record as
tracked on worker-related issues by the
national AFL-CIO.
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(Turn to Page 11)
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
APRIL 7, 2006