Labor Day 2022: I'm Union and I'm Proud

I think I was about 20 when I learned that my great-great-grandfather -- Martin Bergan, my dad's dad’s mother's dad -- had been hanged on Jan. 14, 1879, for his role in the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania I had no knowledge of. Naturally, my first inclination was to feel shame -- he'd been convicted of murder, after all, so he must have been a bad guy. And because we had little interaction with the Walshes after my father suffered a traumatic brain injury when I was about 6 years old, this wasn't the kind of family lore I could hash out with extended family -- and the internet was still ages away.

Over the years, my brother Bill and his wife, Jacqueline, began researching their family histories, eventually building a(n in-house) family tree that puts anything on Ancestry.com to shame. And over the years -- especially since home DNA tests became more mainstream -- so too have I taken a deeper interest in where I come from.

When I finally got around to looking into my great-great-grandfather's case, I was stunned by what I learned. Instead of being ashamed I found myself beaming with pride at his efforts to fight against the greedy and ruthless mining companies in the Keystone State he and his fellow workers were up against -- helping to pave the way for the unions I have been a proud member of my entire career:

Wages were low, working conditions were atrocious, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. On Sept. 6, 1869, a fire at the Avondale Mine in Luzerne County, took the lives of 110 coal miners. The families blamed the coal company for failing to finance a secondary exit for the mine.

The mine owners without one single exception had refused over the years to install emergency exits, ventilating and pumping systems, or to make provision for sound scaffolding. In Schuylkill County alone 566 miners had been killed and 1,655 had been seriously injured over a seven-year period.

Then in December 1874, Franklin B. Gowen -- aka "the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world" -- led the other coal operators to announce a 20 percent pay cut.

Labor organizers angrily watched railway directors riding about the country in luxurious private cars while proclaiming their inability to pay living wages to hungry working men, prompting the miners to go on strike on Jan. 1, 1875.

The union was nearly broken by the imprisonment of its leadership and by attacks conducted by vigilantes against the strikers. Gowen "deluged the newspapers with stories of murder and arson" committed by the Molly Maguires. The press produced stories of strikes in Illinois, in Jersey City, and in the Ohio mine fields, all inspired by the Mollies. The stories were widely believed. In Schuylkill County, the striking miners and their families were starving to death. (Via Wikipedia)

That the Molly Maguires fought back with every tool in their arsenal hardly seems unreasonable, given the desperate circumstances. 

As a token of my solidarity, I read up and then watched the 1970 film based on my great-great-grandfather and his comrades' lives, "The Molly Maguires," starring Richard Harris (as the Pinkerton detective hired by Gowen to bust the Molly Maguires' union building) and Sean Connery (as a leader of the Mollies), whose tagline reads:

In 1876 Pennsylvania, a group of Irish immigrant coal miners begin to retaliate against the cruelty of their work environment.

To me, that they were forced to use "sabotage and sometimes murder" -- as the film's longer tagline proclaims -- is the price society pays for letting corporations inhumanely exploit immigrants struggling to support their families, forcing them to work in some of roughest conditions known to man. 

He begins work the next day -- it is back-breaking work and he is exhausted. At the end of the week he joins the long queue for pay. He is paid $9.24 -- however a long list is made of "deductions" including cost of explosives and cost of shovels. $9 is deducted so his pay for the week is 24 cents.

A novelization of the film.

While not everyone may see it the way I do -- to give you an idea of who I am, I'm at peace with the IRA’s attempts to reunite Ireland and still think the United Kingdom needs to give back the occupied six counties, and have little patience for Russia’s annexation of Crimea (and more) and Israelis building illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, trampling on human-rights law -- I'm now proud to be the descendant of two kinds of Mollies.

❤️❤️❤️

That the film was directed by Martin Ritt of "Norma Rae" (1979) fame only makes my penchant for calling myself "Norma Gay" during work contract negotiations all the more fitting, but does nothing to explain my Jimmy Hoffa jokes!

Still, it's rather depressing to read that The Pottsville Republican, my great-great-grandfather's home newspaper where his grandson Mickey Walsh would later be a noted sports columnist, described Martin as someone who "must have been born without heart or soul." I'd say that's a better description of the Pinkerton detective, James McParland (aka James McKenna), who was hired by the mining brass to infiltrate the Mollies, which led to their mass executions. Before he ratted them out, he was leaking information to vigilantes who "ambushed and murdered miners suspected of being Molly Maguires, as well as their families." 

Who's up for a pint?

Richard Harris as the Pinkerton detective

The Mollies at rest

Shoving the queer was totally different by the time they did it to me!

Sean Connery as Jack Kehoe

From my family tree: 

Martin was hanged in the Pottsville jail on Jan. 14, 1879, for the murder of Patrick Burns in Silver Creek, a killing linked to the Molly Maguires, a group of Irish Americans blamed for violence as part of the movement to unionize Pennsylvania coal mines in the 1870s.

Fittingly, the last of Mollies to be tried and convicted was Peter McManus, whose namesake bar I lived around the corner from and frequented for nearly 25 years. 

And in a freaky epilogue: One of my dad's cousins has recently been in touch, and just sent me this shocking newspaper article that reveals that Patrick Bergin -- my great-great-uncle and the son of Martin Bergin -- was the victim of workplace violence on July 3, 1918, nearly 40 years after his father's hanging. 

Patrick Bergen [sic], a foreman in charge of masons erecting the buildings for Carson College, at Erdenheim, near Chestnut Hill, was shot and killed yesterday by an Italian. 

Bergen discharged an Italian laborer during the morning after he had found the man shirking. In the afternoon this man, whose name the police do not know, returned with four fellow countrymen.

Bergen ordered them away. Then one of the men who had come with the discharged laborer pulled out a revolver and shot Bergen twice. The foremen was dead when he reached Chestnut Hill Hospital. The five men escaped. 

I don't know about you, but "shirking Italian" [EYE-tal-yun] just might be the best unused album title I've ever heard. (Or maybe a punk group, The Shirking Italians?) This tragedy left poor Mrs. Bergen [sic] alone to raise two or three young children, depending on the source, and the world lost one fine mustache. 

P.S.

This headline made my week!

Happy Labor Day!

Hope you're having a nice holiday weekend.

Song of the Day: 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' by the Style Council

This one's for Damian, who doesn't understand my fascination with the former Jam/Style Council leader. Does this help? He's singing "our song" here!

I need a T-shirt that says: "Paul Weller Made Me a Socialist" 

Walls Come Tumbling Down

The Style Council

You don't have to take this crap

You don't have to sit back and relax

You can actually try changing it

I know we've always been taught to rely

Upon those in authority 

But you never know until you try

How things just might be 

If we came together so strongly

Are you gonna try to make this work

Or spend your days down in the dirt

You see things can change 

Yes and walls can come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling down 

Yes they do, yes they do, yes they do, yes they do, hey)

The competition is a color TV

We're on still pause with the video machine

That keep you slave to the H.P.

Until the unity is threatened by

Those who have and who have not 

Those who are with and those who are without

And dangle jobs like a donkey's carrot 

Until you don't know where you are

Are you gonna get to realize

The class war's real and not mythologized

And like Jericho, you see walls can come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling 

(Down) You'll be too weak to fight it

(Down) oh unless we're united

(Down) oh will you deny it?

Ooh

Are you gonna be threatened by

The public enemies No. 10 

Those who play the power game

They take the profits, you take the blame 

When they tell you there's no rise in pay

Are you gonna try and make this work

Or spend your days down in the dirt 

You see things can change 

Walls can come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling down

Governments crack and systems fall

'Cause unity is powerful

Lights go out, walls come tumbling down

CWA Endorses Hillary Clinton for President

Thrilled that my longtime union, the Communications Workers of America, has endorsed Hillary Clinton -- particularly since my newsroom rep is a Bernie bro!

Here's why they did it: 

CWA whole-heartedly endorsed Secretary Hillary Clinton for president of the United States on Monday.  

 Clinton has walked with us on the Verizon picket line. She supports the call to get big money out of politics. She is committed to ending special treatment for Wall Street and the 1 percent. She wants to help students end the cycle of education debt. She has a solid record on the issues that are critical for working families: bargaining rights and the right to organize, family and medical leave, closing tax loopholes that benefit the 1 percent at the expense of our communities, secure health care and retirement benefits, and equal pay legislation. She has reaffirmed her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, both now and in a possible lame-duck session of Congress. 

Donald Trump has also been telling us exactly what he would do. He supports "right to work" laws that weaken workers' bargaining rights. He thinks the minimum wage is too high and that workers who want good jobs should accept lower wages. He dismisses the need for equal pay for women. He talks a good game about bad trade deals but manufactures his fancy ties offshore.  

Clinton said she was honored to have earned CWA's endorsement. "For decades, the CWA has connected Americans to each other – and along the way, they've helped build the American middle class," she said.  

Clinton added, "I will do everything in my power to defend American jobs and American workers. Any trade deal must meet three tests to earn my support: It must create good American jobs, raise wages, and advance our national security. I do not believe that the Trans-Pacific Partnership meets this high standard. That's why I oppose the TPP – and that means before and after the election. Above all, we must make sure unions have a seat at the table and a champion in the White House. Because when workers are strong, families are strong – and when families are strong, America is strong."

The Twinkie Defense

Shame On The Gluttonous Bakery Union Members, Blasted Twinkie Killers (11/22/02)

 My sister was excited when Twinkies came back so bought a box. Our mom, Molly, got caught up in the moment and unwrapped one and took a bite: "Still disgusting," she said, as she tossed it in the trash.

Media Two-Point-Oh

NEWSPAPER GUILD OF NEW YORK MEMBERS VOTE 407-105 TO BECOME NEWSGUILD OF NEW YORK

I didn't cast a vote, but I'd have agreed. Only took us 20 years to figure out the news-gathering landscape is changing!