Honoring Those Who Go Before Us

Dick Fallow – 08/23/20

I asked him why it was that most union members seemed to lean heavily
Democratic. In the Midwest, about 30% of union membership is
Republican. Dick feels this may be due to the fact that folks began to
realize the Republican party was no longer the party of Lincoln who
made several statements about valuing workers and their role in
society, particularly since Lincoln himself came from a humble
background. After time, corporations took over the Republican party
and, in Dick’s opinion, they have been on the side of the corporations
and against the public interest ever since the late 1870's. Dick said,
“I don’t care if it was even the issue of child labor, they would not
agree to abolish it. We had to fight them on that and other issues such
as giving a break to public education, unemployment compensation, and
worker compensation. All of these things did not come to pass until
Roosevelt. There were some who contributed a little prior to that, but
mainly it was Roosevelt who started addressing the need of jobs when
40% of the people were unemployed. You had young people riding the
rails looking for work all the time while the republicans were saying
prosperity is just around the corner. Just around the corner turned
into four long years. It got worse and worse and they
did nothing! People lost their life savings and it was just a horrible
mess! So this was Roosevelt’s legacy, including Social Security as part
of the New Deal. You’ve got to admit once in a while that something can
be done. People were saying back then that it was a part of a communist
plot.”



During our conversation, I found
myself thinking about how much has changed and yet how much has stayed
the same. Then and now, republicans seem to base their whole approach
to voters on fear. It was Roosevelt who said, “we have nothing to fear
but fear itself.”



Dick
asks us to remember the fact that we are each other’s keeper; “We do
have a responsibility to one another – it only makes common sense.
There are people who are not doing very well… I think we’re going to
have dissension, we’re going to see a destabilizing of this country and
that goes hand in hand with the welfare gap, so we can’t continue to
allow corporations to rule our government. It’s time to elect
representatives who will actually represent the people’s interest.”
Vested interests have contaminated our relationships with the rest of
the world as well.  As Dick succinctly put it, “If you go to bed
with dogs, you wake up with fleas.”



Dick
believes the best way to serve the public’s interest is by getting big
money and special interests out of the electoral process. Ideally, we
could counter this by equally providing free television time for all
candidates, then let the debate begin on a thorough basis where all
sides can participate. He says, “Let their be a clash of arguments and
ideas. That’s what democracy is all about.”



I asked
Dick what kind of positive changes he would like to see within the
labor movement. He told me he would first like to see democracy in the
workplace. Dick said, “We talk about political democracy but we don’t
have economic democracy – instead, we have an economic dictatorship when
you go to work for a corporation. Without regulations, without unions,
they can fire you, they can demote you without cause, therefore I would
like to see laws enacted that would actually protect workers who want
to join unions from losing their jobs. Nowadays, people have got to
fight to have a voice so that they can reach out to each other due to
the nature of our society. Freedom of the press is fine, but it’s only
available to those who own it so who’s kidding who? The American people
are being taken to the cleaners and being short-changed due to policy.”




Dick
would also like to see more union newspapers as well as vigilant
television coverage of the issues that impact American workers. In
addition, he said he would like to see the union leadership more fully
involve members in the life of the union, where the opinions of
members, of workers themselves are decisive. Other items on his wish
list include meetings on company time, child care set up and available
to working parents either within or near the workplace, and paid family
leave. Dick has long believed that going to a 30 hour work week will
help to solve the problem of unemployment. As Lincoln said, we need a
government of, by, and for the people.



I asked
Dick what he thought were some of his greatest accomplishments… He
said he was proud to be a part of helping to win support for the
passage of Medicare in 1965 as well as working on Civil Rights.  He and others fought to get a
contract which included anti-discrimination clauses on the hiring of women
and minorities, and they make it a policy to educate people about
divisive corporate tactics.  Dick said, “We were really promoting
a way of life as well as being economic stewards. We helped a lot of
good people. Locally, the QC Federation of Labor helped to implement
Fair Housing in RI County. There was a lot of resistance against us but
it was the right thing to do.”



Dick was
mentored by several people, many of whom came out of the era of the
sit-down strikes and the time of John L Lewis and starting the CIO. He
said,
“They thought, (we still think) it’s not just economics, it’s a way of
life. That’s why we’ve got to be sure people have food, shelter,
clothing, and a decent education based on humility and not how much
money you have.”



In
closing I asked Dick to share with me his favorite public servant as
well as his favorite spiritual leader. He told me although Roosevelt
wasn’t perfect, he was very successful. He saw the handwriting on the
wall and responded to the people who were in motion at the time.



Dick
said, “Jesus Christ laid down some pretty good guidelines for us to
live by. He was way ahead of his time, so much so that the
establishment at the time had him killed. If he came back today they
would probably kill him again. Religion is a wonderful thing for a lot
of people, It gives them hope and something to lean on in tough times,
unfortunately it has also been used to manipulate people and divide them
against each other.”



Dick
Fallow is a testament to the indomitable human spirit and continues to lead and inspire those who know him and continue to
work along side him in an effort to make this country a better place to
work and live. Thank you Dick Fallow, for your many self-less
contributions to this great country and your fellow man!