“I still have the warrant for my arrest in 1970 when the postal workers went out on strike. I was president of the local down here. Scared the hell out of me, but I stood on that picket line! I’m 85 years old, and when I was able to stand, I was a union person. My Dad was a union guy and I grew up that way.
My first job was up at B&W and the first thing I did when I walked in was ask ‘where can I sign up for the union?’ When I was president of the Letter Carriers Union, we had 12,000 guys in the local.
Everybody has a fundamental right to sit down and talk. I’m not saying you have to give in, or get everything you want. But everyone has the right to sit down and discuss your problems. If someone won’t give you that, they’re in the wrong.”
[Charlie Hamilton, a longtime member of the Letter Carriers Union and Beaver County resident joins a rally with members of SEIU Local 668 outside the Human Services Building in Beaver Falls on April 1st. At that time, the workers had been working without a contract for nearly a year and negotiations with the county commissioners were at a standstill. Since then, a tentative agreement has been reached and will be voted on in the coming days.]
