First, I want to thank Laura Clawson and the Daily Kos team for selecting me to write on labor issues. I am honored and humbled by their faith in my writing and me. I have come a long way from that 22 year old in English 101 where I was told "You will never pass this class!"
I have written about my dad before and it seems fitting that my first diary for Daily Kos Labor should be about him. When I am writing about labor issues and putting a human face on them, I am in essence writing for my dad. What happened to him should not have happened in the eighties and it should not happen to anyone today or in the future.
The above photo of my dad (third from the left and the only one wearing glasses in the first row) and his coworkers was taken a couple years before Duane Bowman Jr. purchased the dairy and before he had a chance to break the Teamsters union. The men in this photo worked damned hard at their jobs. In my father's case, he was up at 1:00 am everyday during the school year. His main route was delivering milk to all of the schools in and around Madison, Wisconsin, both public and private. He would finish up with that route at about 8:00 am then onto his secondary route, delivering milk to restaurants on State Street, to the Greek houses on Langdon and a couple of private dorms (The Regent and The Towers) on or near the UW campus. He would normally get home a little after 3:00 pm, which was after a stop at a neighborhood tavern.
I remember walking down East Washington Avenue on my way to East High School and my dad scaring the crap out of me by blowing his air horn as he drove by. He would laugh as he drove by. I can still hear that laugh today. It was a laugh that I wish my son could hear; however, I am sure that my dad’s job shortened his life. Driving truck is a demanding profession. Driving a refrigerated truck and going in and out of coolers all day is an extremely difficult job and it takes a physical toll on the body.
Having an employer who busts unions does mental and emotional damage to a person that one cannot see at first blush, nor can a teenage son understand. It was not just about the union being busted. It was the sense of pride that my dad lost. He had worked virtually his entire life. First on the family farm, then he served in the Navy during WWII, he then worked briefly at Oscar Mayer’s after the war, and then he was driving truck for the dairy for well over twenty-five years. That job defined him and who he was.
While he never drove truck again my dad and his coworkers eventually won their court case against their employer. (Mr. Bowman lost his business and the men of Dane County Dairy got a settlement.) My dad retired. The union was always there for our family, even ten years after my father’s death. His Teamsters insurance helped pay for my mom’s long-term dementia care until her death.
This and all future labor diaries are for you dad…hopefully by speaking out I we at Daily Kos can prevent what happened to you from ever happening to anyone else ever again.