Tony Mazzocchi: A visionary leader never to be forgotten

James Clancy interviews biographer Les Leopold on the life and times of a great labour leader

Everyone should know about Tony Mazzocchi. He was the ideal trade unionist – gutsy, scrappy and an ingenious grassroots agitator and organizer who understood that activism is the bedrock of the labour movement.

I think Tony’s extraordinary life story is full of insight and can help fuel a new generation of labour activists in Canada and around the world. If you’ve never heard of Tony, there’s no better way to learn about this visionary of the labour movement than to read Les Leopold’s new biography, The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi.

Tony was a friend and an inspiration to me. And he will be to anyone who reads Les Leopold’s riveting biography. I had the chance recently to interview Les about his terrific biography. You can read what he had to say below. The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor

In solidarity,

I didn’t really have a choice. I worked with Tony on and off for almost 30 years. When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 it was clear someone had to record his story or it would be lost. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to know him, work with him, and to write the book. He was the most unusual character I’ve ever met.

First of all he was flat out brilliant. He perceived things that others just didn’t see. For example, he saw the need for a massive occupational safety and health movement when just about everyone else still concentrated on slips and falls.

Secondly, he was extremely positive. He didn’t get down on individuals. He didn’t complain like the rest of us mortals.

Third, he was a live wire – never, never boring. He told great stories, kept us laughing and was never afraid to make himself the butt of jokes.

Also, he didn’t pretend he was perfect. He was a dropout from junior high school. He had great difficulty writing. He also had difficulty keeping a family together. He knew he was a flawed person and never pretended that he was better than the workers he tried to lead.

And finally, as one labour leader put it, "He was the man who never sold out." He never put his own financial or political welfare ahead of the needs of working people.

Mazzocchi pushed OSHA into being. He didn’t invent it or write the legislation or do the heavy lobbying in the U.S. Congress. But he led the public campaign that made all the difference. He conducted a series of very public workshops/hearings at which workers provided detailed information – chapter and verse – about the horrendous working conditions on shop floors all over the U.S. and Canada.

The workshops became so popular that the media picked up the story. By popularizing the issue of workplace pollution, Mazzocchi linked the effort with the emerging environmental movement, making it nearly impossible for politicians to avoid it. Even Richard Nixon was forced to go along with the bill.

From a very young age, Tony was committed to building a powerful labour movement to tackle corporate power. But he also realized that other groups all over society were being screwed by corporations. So he wanted labour to connect with other emerging movements. He forged alliances with the civil rights movement in the early 1950s. He linked up with those seeking to stop nuclear weapons testing in the mid-1950s. He was among the very first labour leaders to reach out to the environmental movement in the 1960s. He organized the first serious labour opposition to the Vietnam War. And he opened the doors of his union to young student activists.

He was able to do this because he saw the connections so clearly. He believed that there was an essential conflict between the corporate drive for profits and what was good for society as a whole. Corporate power had to be tamed and it would require far reaching alliances to succeed.

Tony Mazzocchi	Karen Silkwood
Tony Mazzocchi with Robert Kennedy	Landmark strike against Shell Oil, 1973
"With you til victory'
James Clancy (right) with Tony Mazzocchi (centre) and Dr. Quentin Young (left)

He also had a very different vision of these alliances. For example, he united with the environmental movement because he saw that workplace pollution and environmental degradation were connected. In fact, he was the first person to make a very simple observation – that all toxic pollution starts in the workplace.

To Mazzocchi health and safety was an environmental struggle, not something separate. As a result, he saw his union – the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) – as the largest environmental organization in North America. And many, many OCAW members developed that same kind of understanding. They saw themselves as leaders of the environmental movement – not just allies.

For 30 years Tony was a tried and true Democrat. He rebuilt the Democratic Party on Long Island New York from scratch. He did it all – tedious tasks of electioneering from creating voter lists, to canvassing, to building rallies for Democrat after Democrat. In fact he was gunning for Congress himself, but it didn’t work out.

He began to sour on the Democratic Party during the Vietnam War era when, after all, it was the Democrats who created that disaster. But he still was friendly with its progressive wing. What pushed him over the edge was the Jimmy Carter era (1976-1980). The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. But they wouldn’t even pass the mildest labour law reform.

Tony then figured, “What the heck? What do we have to lose? They take us for granted and we can’t get what we so desperately need to survive.” So he started a debate about the need for a labour party, and then an actual party (that at first would develop a platform but not run candidates). He had no illusions about instant success. In fact, he believed it was likely to fail. But he hoped to lay down the stepping stones that others could follow.

By the way, in 1981 he clearly predicted that the U.S. labour movement’s inability to develop an effective political arm would lead to the movement’s demise. At that point unions accounted for about 23% of the private sector workforce. Now it’s about 7%,

I think Tony would be amused and dismayed by the meaningless debates going on in the U.S. presidential elections. For example, I’m sure he would argue that the debate between Clinton and Obama misses the point. Neither of their plans can possibly control costs because they each leave the private health industry in control of costs and profits – a recipe for disaster.

Of course, Tony would also point out that the Republicans are not even close to reality when they attack the Canadian system, and whine about socialized medicine as if the Kremlin were marching into the U.S. But sooner or later, Tony would argue, Americans will face up to the fact that single payer has to be used in the U.S.

Partly it was dumb luck. He came on the scene just as the worst of McCarthyism (in the 1950s) had passed through the New York labour movement. In fact he helped to rebuild the Long Island Federation of Labor which had been decimated by left-right fights.

But also he was very in tune with the workers he led. He had no intention of devoting his life to the defense of the Soviet Union, although he didn’t attack it either. Most importantly, he was able to create an anti-corporate militant culture that made sense to everyday workers. Instead of proselytizing on his own, he exposed workers to more radical ideas through books, movies and a wide range of speakers.

He gave them plenty of space to learn about how the system works. And he was patient. He first made sure to take care of business on the shop floor. He delivered on the basics in the contract and led the fight to raise wages and benefits to very high levels. He was the first in America to win a dental plan. Over time he developed his local union, which consisted mostly of women cosmetics workers, into a fighting group that more or less took over the shop floor and led the community on civil rights and anti-nuclear weapons testing.

Actually, I’m most proud of the chapters of the book that show how he built a dynamic, militant local union.

To Tony the Karen Silkwood struggle was not about nuclear energy or health and safety issues, it was about saving her local union. The entire incident was about a decertification campaign. Kerr-McGee was trying to crush the local union. She got killed trying to defend it. What few people know, Tony almost was killed as well. Here’s what he said about Silkwood at the 1979 OCAW convention:

“I have nothing against feminism, but Karen wasn’t a feminist. She’s been adopted by the feminist movement…. She has been portrayed as an anti-nuclear activist. She wasn’t. She was involved in one simple activity; it was to save a local union at Kerr-McGee where the company was hell bent on destroying it…. Karen was solely a trade union martyr…. She made the supreme sacrifice.”

That’s the most difficult question of the book. Mazzocchi should have been a household name. After all, he changed every workplace in the U.S. with his health and safety movement. So what happened?

Part of the answer is that he was truly a movement builder. He saw himself as a catalyst. His idea was to produce thousands of leaders and activists who would see themselves as leaders of a great cause. His ego did not need the adulation. He felt there would be plenty to go around.

Another part was that he never became president of OCAW. He lost two elections (by a tiny fraction of the vote) to Bob Goss, a man with very strong ties to the CIA and who was not afraid to use a dirty trick or two.

Tony tried to win by not making unsavory deals. The other side had no such scruples. At the time OCAW had nearly 180,000 members and was positioned well to lead an American labour revival. Tony felt he had to win on terms that would allow him to really shake things up. If he traded jobs for votes he couldn’t be the kind of leader that the movement really needed.

He lost for the second time in 1981, just before Reaganism hit the U.S. It was a colossal tragedy for our movement.

That was certainly the intent. First of all it offers hope. Tony built one of the most militant local unions during the so call sleepy 1950s. Labour was supposed to be dead. But someone forgot to tell Mazzocchi.

He also helped turn around a union that was deeply tied to the national security state. OCAW members made thermonuclear weapons. OCAW leaders were deeply engaged with the CIA. OCAW made every toxic substance around. That union and those workers by all rights should have been solid pro-war hawks who hated environmentalists. Yet in combination with many courageous leaders, especially those OCAW leaders from Canada, like Neil Reimer, the OCAW became one of the most progressive unions in the U.S.

Another clue is education. Mazzocchi used every opportunity to bring fresh information and controversial points of view to the rank and file. Every meeting, every convention was filled with good speakers and educational sessions. The world’s most popular health and safety book, Work is Dangerous to Your Health, grew directly out of a Mazzocchi educational program.

The most critical clue, I think, lies in his clarity of vision. He never had any illusions about corporate power. He never believed a union could possibly survive by cuddling up to it. And history has shown that he was right.

He used that vision to inspire working people. He believed that there was more to life than working until you dropped. He was determined to help working people see and believe that they could make this system deliver a much better life.

He was the man who hated the kind of work that was hierarchical, deadly and dulling. He wanted us all to have jobs that used our creativity, that helped us fulfill our potential, that gave us the free time to enjoy the gift of life. As Tony put it as he was dying:

"It’s incredible, when you think about it – life is really short – really friggin' short! Humans just don’t live that long. I think it’s ridiculous that anybody has to work over 20 hours a week in a time when we’ve got the ability to produce everything we need. Instead of some guy at the top skimming millions of dollars, you could pay for healthcare for a hell of a lot of people, for a lot of years – just one guy.

"You know there’s an awful lot of wealth out there. If it was distributed appropriately, everyone could have a fairly decent life, I think globally. And people could be happy transforming the way we live. Just rebuilding, not having anyone live in a crappy place. Not everyone has to live in a mansion, but everyone can live in a decent environment. It’s all possible.

"Is that really asking too much?" NUPGE

More information:
The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor