In 2006 or so, when SEIU announced its plans to merge the southern California public sector locals into one giant “local,” 347 resisted. When we lost, we worked hard to merge with grace and to preserve the proud history of the scrappy little fighting union we loved. We packed up everything with care, protecting volumes of union newspapers, photos, tchotchkes, and union regalia.
And it all got tossed.
Michelle was heartbroken after Walter passed and she went looking for remnants of his labor legacy.
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, pretty much since the legacy locals reunion the old 660 folks organized. Then Coco Live at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of weeks ago got me all mushy and nostalgic again.
Remembering is important.
So, I’m thinking we can gather what we’ve got. I bet there’s more SEIU 347 stuff out there than I imagine. I’ll add the pictures and whatever else I’ve collected. Share yours by whatever means is easiest for you and I’ll update this in a bit with everything we’ve all got.
I found a tiny bit of official SEIU 347 history. There’s a note in this wonderful Elinor Glenn obit about United Public Workers Local 246 (I knew it! I’d always heard rumors and rumblings that 347 came out of the “one big union” of all public sector workers – state, county, city, school – before MMB, before other unions accepted them as “real workers,” when we were all pretty much considered communists).
Elsewhere I found that Local 347 was officially chartered in 1962.
Michelle reminded me that 347 members fought for refuse supervisors promoted from the ranks rather than retired LAPD sergeants. And I remembered stories about trash men training new drivers on their own time at local schools with big parking lots.
Here’s what I said at the reunion:
I started with Bob Hunt, remembered knowing him before I met him. My first campaign with SEIU was as part of the “downstairs” organizers, led by Pat Jackson, housed underneath Local 99; we were called that because we weren’t allowed upstairs. At every school – and there are, what, 900 or more – someone was certain to ask if I knew Bob Hunt. At every school. I thought it was not possible for one person to be organizing all of these schools. But he was. And he did. (They’re Teamsters now.)
Bob Hunt stood in his typical humble fashion to be recognized.
When I went to work at Local 347, people asked me “where’s that?” — and I was working for the International union at the time.
Local 347 was the best kept secret in Los Angeles and Dave Trowbridge made me interview 9 times before he hired me, because I wouldn’t talk bad about Pat Jackson (finest woman I ever met, was all I’d say).
My first day on the job, there were two women in the break room fighting over the sports section. One of them was Michelle Buehler, widow of Walter Backstrom and the finest union communicator ever.
Walter Backstrom “came off a trash truck,” as we say and built Local 347 into the mighty fighting feisty politically effective blue-collar union I was so lucky to find in 1988. Walter could use the word ‘fuck’ as parts of speech that don’t exist and he owned city hall, in the best ways.
When Richard Riordan was elected mayor on a platform of privatizing city services, LA workers organized, fought back, and won. Refuse workers went door-to-door in the West Valley, walking their own trash routes. Once the person at the door figured out that the man at their door was their trash man, the most common next question was, “Have you eaten?” We started in the areas of town where folks were likely to say, ‘I know the mayor – and I’m gonna get him on the phone about this right now!’
Traffic officers organized businesses in Westwood Village and golf workers joined public golfers – in support of keeping public services public. Imagine that! Remember that?
When we fight, we win!
And we have fun! Brothers & Sisters, we had some fun!
The morning during bargaining when the city called screaming that every fountain at city hall was colored lilac? (We’d aimed for purple, but we were new at it!) Maps of the trash routes of the two square blocks immediately surrounding each council member’s home? Check! Read-ins on the lawn of the mayor’s mansion with the librarians, and fabricating awards (it’s a welder joke!) Convincing the city negotiator of the long-standing practice of eating the worm from the celebratory tequila bottle at the end of bargaining?
All of that is our history and our legacy.
As a retired gramma, I see our legacy now from a joyful place.
We did good work, built a proud history.
Every privatization scheme thwarted, every city job contracted in, every worker sitting at every table of power in city hall, the decades & decades of details in the big four city contracts that set the municipal gold standard for city workers, every trash man who retires rather than dies, every community-benefit agreement, neighborhood council, community-involvement effort, every joint labor-management committee that chooses the most environmentally-conscious option – all of that is our legacy, our history.
We did good work.
Walter Backstrom
January 11, 1928 – August 29, 2011
Julie’s eulogy 09-17-11
Today we honor & celebrate the life & work of a great man.
To Walter’s family: I say thank you. Thank you for sharing him with us, with this movement he helped birth, with the workers of Los Angeles, for his contributions to our union.
Ashley Montagu said: The idea is to die young as late as possible.
Walter got that one, didn’t he?
There aren’t a lot of pictures of Walter. He didn’t like to have his picture taken. But when you come across a picture of Walter, he’s almost always sitting in the back, with “the men.”
Walter built the union that was Local 347 from the back of a trash truck. And that truck was never far away. Walter never forgot where he came from, what that meant.
When I came to work for that Union, trash men didn’t retire. They died. Everything we have won for workers is part of Walter’s legacy.
During the years I was honored to lead Local 347, a mechanic paid me, the Union, & Walter the highest compliment. He said to me: I told my members to come back to the Union, that it’s once again a Walter Backstrom union.
Today, as we honor his memory, celebrate his life — it’s important to cry. Walter Irving wrote: “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but o power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief…and unspeakable love.”
Walter was a magical organizer. He could get anyone to do anything. In bargaining, management reports he was always able to get that one more thing. Another percent, another convoluted benefit improvement, something more.
Walter always had something going. Lately it was the Templeton Library. For years it was education policy, funding local government, a candidate for something.
Anyone ever get a call from Walter?
He’d never start at the beginning. You’d always have to figure out what we’re talking about.
And pardon me but the conversation almost always started: “What the fuck…?”
Am I right?
Walter had an amazing way with words. He was a masterful orator. But his real & genuine specialty? Walter could cuss. Walter could use the word “fuck” as every conceivable part of speech. For him it was an adjective and an adverb. He colored colorful language.
I’m gonna miss those calls.
Leonardo da Vinci said this: “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.”
Walter loved & was loved. He did good, good work for workers. His is a life well lived.
Langston Hughes wrote a short poem called Advice. It goes like this:
Folks, I’m telling you,
birthing is hard
and dying is mean —
so get yourself
a little loving
in between.Michelle: You took such good care of him. He knew you loved him. His wife, you were his partner in all things & I know you can’t imagine living without him. Know that we are all here for you. I love you, Sister!
To close, (the fellow who wrote Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten) Robert Fulghum wrote this:
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge — myth is more potent than history — dreams are more powerful than facts — hope always triumphs over experience — laughter is the cure for grief — love is stronger than death.
