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McGarvey's Bright Ray of Hope From Butte America |
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Written On: December 20, 2001 |
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Reflecting back on 2001, you’d have to admit it was quite a year—the Ash Wednesday earthquake, Boeing’s headquarters move to Chicago, and September 11th. No doubt those events will be talked about for years to come, but a little-known event in Montana was also noteworthy.
Late last May, the new president of the Montana State AFL-CIO spoke to the state’s Republican Party just a few days after he was elected. During his speech he received five standing ovations.
What is also unusual is Jim McGarvey is from Butte, my hometown, long a bastion of labor unions and Democrats.
To understand how unusual McGarvey’s overture is, you have to understand Butte. Butte is a historic rough and tumble mining town, proud of its heritage. Nearly everyone in town has a pick-up with a bumper sticker sporting an American flag and the words, “Butte America.”
For many years, Butte was called “the richest hill on earth” because of its vast copper, gold, and silver deposits. Just about every job in Butte was a union job and for more than a century, bitter strikes punctuated its history. In Butte, the Eleventh Commandment was, “Don’t cross a picket line.”
Republicans in Butte? McGarvey said he didn’t even know a Republican until he went to college.
To illustrate the point, I vividly remember checking the voting machines on election night with my dad in 1960. At St. Mary’s Catholic Church, John F. Kennedy got 450 votes and Richard Nixon got one. “Sooner or later we’ll find that guy,“ my father lamented. The common political axiom was that the worst Democrat was better than the best Republican.
That’s the “Butte America” where Jim McGarvey grew up. So for him, the top union official, to extend an olive branch to the GOP only a couple of days after taking office was as jolting as the Ash Wednesday earthquake.
A Montana newspaper compared the event to Nixon’s trip to China in 1972. In his talk, McGarvey told the Republicans, “Labor and management in Montana are a little like two stubborn old mules, always fighting in the corral and biting each other while in harness. This old mule is ready to stop kicking and biting.”
He added, “The new leadership of the Montana State AFL-CIO is willing to work with you [Republicans] if you are willing to work with us. The bitter divisiveness of recent years has only served to make conditions worse for all of us. Montanans need to work together if we are to improve conditions and shore up our economy.”
McGarvey’s initiative holds a lesson for Washington state. A healthy and vibrant economy requires a new approach by labor and management. Jobs, worker safety, and a healthy environment are values we all share in common – Republicans and Democrats.
Here in Washington state, we dig our way out of our budget crisis and work to make our state competitive, we should keep McGarvey’s advice in mind. It is a good resolution for the new year.
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