Does he recall the years before 1946 when Seattle had 25,000 to 30,000 union members parading and picnicking on Labor Day?
”You bet,” replies Ed Lontz of Maple Valley. “It was a big deal.” And how did he celebrate Labor Day this year? Ed says simply, “Conversation.” However, it really wasn’t that simple.
Labor Day 2017 was personally a big deal for the 1946 Tahoma High School graduate. He had been in Boston attending his union’s international convention and receiving an historic pin for 65 years in his labor union. The August holiday saw Ed attending Heat & Frost Insulators and Allied Workers International Convention back east. The insulators union, established in 1903, meets every five years. Since his employment and joining the union, Ed has been a delegate or guest, attending all but one of its conventions since 1962. This year he was one of 20 retirees assigned duties as sergeant of arms.
His attendance at the August convention had a unique personal tweak for Ed. He might be the only retiree to ever receive a labor pin accommodating 65 years. The Seattle labor union most likely had to request one specially designed.
“An insulation employee for 35 years,” Ed comments with a trace of pride, “1952 to 1987. I started at $1.52 per hour with no benefits.” Ed began work as an insulator spending 13 years, on a daily basis, out in the fields: industry, construction and marine. He served a total of 22 years as business manager within the same union at Seattle’s Labor Temple that serves 22 counties. He winces as he recalls and physically addresses the detrimental effects of the insulation product, asbestos, on the lives and lifespan of his friends and co-workers. “Asbestos is no longer a part of our insulation product,” he acknowledges. It’s also no longer a part of the union name. He said that asbestos was eliminated from their product in the early 70’s and is still undergoing safe removal from ships, schools, buildings and industrial sites.
Back in 1946 as Labor Day celebrations had started to decline, Ed became a Tahoma alumnus through a circuitous route. After applying to the Coast Guard as a counter to the military draft, he left high school in his senior year and accepted a two-year Coast Guard term. He was able to complete his GED testing (General Educational Development), get a leave from duty, and participate in graduation ceremonies with his senior class.
Not only was Ed a productive worker in his field and business manager, as a Tahoma High School graduate he was also instrumental in encouraging a dozen other THS grads his own age, plus some of their THS children, to join the trade. Two of them became business managers as he had. Not complacent at all about employing women in the field of insulators, he also oversaw two female THS graduates being hired, one of whom recently retired.
Daily newspapers now reference the movement causing unions to decline as a “gig” economy and “gig” workers – verbiage for “bits and pieces,” as in corporations that outsource work and employees working for, but independent of, the parent company. In this framework, a union may no longer be deemed feasible. It also implies that Ed’s personal assessment of celebrating Labor Day as simply “a conversation,” may in fact be the future observation of Labor Day.
