I first met Tony Mazzocchi in the late 1970s at a public forum on occupational safety and health.  I had been eager to become active in the union movement, but had no clue as to how to go about it.  Someone suggested that I go and listen to Tony. 

        At the forum Tony said, “It’s cheaper to kill workers than clean up the workplace.” And based on the grim occupational death toll of OCAW members he made a blistering no holds barred condemnation of corporate America.

        Asked that evening about how people could contribute towards improving occupational safety and health practices, Tony shot back with an unexpected answer.  “We need to build workers’ power with stronger unions capable of challenging management’s authority and create an independent political party for working people.” 

        I’d heard intellectuals talk like that, but here was a trade unionist who was so much more convincing because everything he said drew directly upon his own experience as a union member and leader within OCAW.  Here was a leader who didn’t mince his words, whose powerful rhetoric was backed up by experience!

        Hearing Tony speak that night changed my life forever.  I was so inspired that a few months later when I got the chance to help Dick McManus (a union organizer and one of Tony’s closest union brothers from Local 8-149), I grabbed it.  I knew that I wanted to be a part of a rank and file led, democratic union that produced the likes of Tony Mazzocchi!

        Working with Mac, and other OCAW activists only deepened my commitment.  And eventually like so many others, I got to know Tony Mazzocchi as a mentor, OCAW brother and friend.  I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for the years of continuing inspiration that he gave me in the labor movement. 

        Obviously I’m not alone in this.  Tony inspired thousands of people both inside and outside the labor movement.  Born June 13, 1926, he grew up in Brooklyn, the son of a tailor who was active in the garment workers’ union.  In his mid-twenties he became a rank-and file member and then president of Local 149 of the Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers union (now Local 2-149 PACE).   He went on to become a member of the International Executive Board, Legislative Director, Vice-President and Secretary Treasurer of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union.

        Many obituaries chronicling Tony’s incredible contributions to the labor, occupational health and environmental movements have already been written.  I want to focus just a bit on Tony’s special ability to inspire people.  With his passing, we need to understand it better, because we all have to be a lot more like Tony if we hope to carry on our shared vision for building a militant and democratic union movement that is capable of effecting great change.

        Tony was a great chef and cooking dinner with him was a richly rewarding experience.  His cooking style also reveals some on his unique ability to inspire others.

        Tony liked to carefully plan a meal and he always wanted it to be a memorable feast.  He’d study a cookbook or two pouring over the recipes. We’d drink some red wine.  He’d ask around to see what people were interested in.  He’d start making a list of ingredients.  We’d drink some red wine.

        Then we went shopping.  He’d look for the best basic ingredients, because he would want to make everything from scratch.  But if the right ingredients weren’t available, Tony didn’t hesitate to improvise. 

        We’d get back and drink some more red wine.

Tony first would describe the feast to come: antipasto and calamata olive spread on fresh bread.  Maybe lasagna, calamari or linguini with anchovies.  And always some ziti with his special red sauce.  Then roasted lamb with Italian herbs or eggplant parmigian.  Salad, wine, desert. 

        His descriptions would get everyone’s mouth watering.   And then Tony would to get everyone involved in the meal with an assignment. 

        After a frenzy of preparation – and many spontaneous adjustments to the recipes (with speculation about the proper length of time needed for this or that dish to cook) – a wonderfully satisfying meal would always emerge. 

        So what are the larger lessons from Tony’s culinary skills about his ability to inspire?  First, learn from what others have done and have a clear vision of what you want to achieve.  Always begin with a strong foundation of great ingredients and have a plan.  Then get as many people as possible involved in the production, but don’t be afraid to be innovative about the plan as you go along.  Use a little booze to get everyone working together smoothly.

        The need for a labor party was certainly Tony’s major recipe for the working class.  It was Tony’s single most powerful and consistent message over his entire lifetime.  He frequently criticized labor strategies that invested millions of dollars to organize the unorganized or win contract gains at the bargaining table without struggling to unite workers at the political level.  He often used an analogy that labor campaigns without a political party were setting up workers to fight capital with one arm and leg hog-tied behind their back.

        Although Tony welcomed John Sweeny’s new AFL-CIO administration, his efforts to build a labor party explicitly challenged the leadership’s lock step allegiance to the Democratic Party.  I think he made a convincing case that both major parties were hopelessly beholden to the same big business interests that we were fighting at the bargaining table.  Sadly (but no surprise), most major union leaders are still refusing to make a major break with the status quo, even while gains through collective bargaining are meager at best and new organizing has practically stalled.

        Last spring many of Tony’s friends gathered for a celebration with him in Washington while he was still strong enough to appreciate it.  It was attended by an interesting mix of many long time OCAW activists and friends of Tony’s from the labor party and occupational safety and health movements.  But it being Washington, there were also many D.C. union staffers, some of whom while admiring Tony from a distance, had actually opposed his more radical and democratic prescriptions for empowering workers or revitalizing the labor movement.

        After an eloquent introduction by his old friend George Roach, Tony talked a lot about what we have all accomplished together and thanked everyone for their support and dedication over the years.  Citing the public’s reaction to recent revelations of enormous corporate malfeasance, Tony wrapped up passionately, “You know, too often we’re organizing for small changes.  I really believe that someday change won’t be incremental. We need to start preparing for the day now.” 

        It was a great parting shot from Tony.  He was giving the bureaucrats in the room a last dig about their lack of vision, while at the same time leaving the rest of us with a sense of his great optimism for the future.

        That’s why Tony was so inspirational.  He could reach out to a new generation of idealists in the labor movement and many related fields with provocative analysis and an edgy critique.  Unlike so many labor leaders either worn down by McCarthyism or bought off by post war notions of labor management cooperation, Tony always talked with common sense about where we were at (“it’s not collective bargaining, it’s collective begging”) what needs to be done, (“more organizing to change the nature of the debate”) and how we might get there together (“The bosses have two parties, we need a party of our own.”).

        As a visionary movement chef, Tony was always cooking up something special.  When most of us were talking about workers having the “right to know,” Tony was moving bills for the “right to act.”  When we campaigned for stricter environmental rules, Tony organized for a “superfund for workers.”  When trade unionists knocked themselves out for yet another liberal Democratic politician, Tony set about building a Labor Party. 

        My point is that no one has that energy and vision alone.  Tony just really knew the recipes that inspire people to work together to challenge the status quo!