Jerry Andrako, above-top, on a family vacation in Great Falls, Mont., last summer. Above-bottom: Andrako and Doug Fraser at Black Lake in 1986.

Reflections of a UAW retiree

The recent issue of Solidarity celebrating the UAW’s 75th anniversary flooded me with memories and reminded me how fortunate I am to be a member of this great union.

It’s been nearly 30 years since I was elected a third-shift alternate committeeman at UAW Local 2177 while working at the General Motors Philadelphia SPO.

I remember one summer in 1986 attending a Family Scholarship Program at the Walter and May Reuther UAW Family Education Center at Black Lake. Until then my family didn’t understand why I had so much passion for the UAW, but on that trip they got to see for themselves what I already knew: The UAW is a working, thriving and living entity that not only fights for workers, but also helps families and communities.

I was surprised by how much my children, Tom and Amy, fell in love with the UAW experience at Black Lake. Waiting for the bus to take us to the airport, we stood outside the lobby with UAW President Douglas A. Fraser and his granddaughter, who were also waiting for the bus. My children started to cry because they didn’t want to leave. Fraser leaned down and picked up my son, Tom, and comforted him. When he put down my son, he held his granddaughter and my daughter’s hand until the bus arrived.

Fraser made such a connection with my kids that they never forgot him. I know this because we had also visited Disney World that summer, and when I asked my children which vacation they enjoyed most, they both said – you guessed it – Black Lake.

My son and Fraser have since passed on, and I can’t help but think if union representation is needed, he’s there to pick up Tom again.

I was lucky enough to start my local’s first newsletter, “The Local 2177 Newsline.” Through the UAW-Local Union Press Association (LUPA), I’ve had the privilege and honor to interview many of our union’s great leaders, including Fraser, Leonard Woodcock, Owen Bieber, Pat Greathouse, Irving Bluestone, Stephen P. Yokich, Ron Gettelfinger, the Reuther brothers and others.

Whether I was watching them speak or interviewing them myself, it was the union’s narrative history in the making. Fraser was my first-ever interview as a labor journalist, and he talked about the GM sit-down strikes. Greathouse was the best speaker I’ve ever heard. Irving Bluestone and Owen Bieber shared stories as well.

What organization gives members like me access to leaders like that?

The UAW has given me so much over the years: opportunity, encouragement, education and friendship. I’d like to take this opportunity – because I feel it strongly in my heart – to simply say this: Thank you.

E-mail your Workers’ Words story, article or poem (400 words or less) to uawsolidarity@uaw.net; mail to Solidarity magazine, 8000 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, MI 48214  ATTN: WORKERS’ WORDS; or fax to (313) 926-5120.