Labor & Employment Law

Tough Trek for 7-Ton Mother Jones and Friends

By Berry Craig

Hardy Williams (L) and Benny Adair

Three flat tires couldn’t keep Machinists (IAM) Benny Adair and Hardy Williams from completing their monumental task?and Adair swears, ?With all the trouble we had, not a single cussword was said.?

Adair and Williams volunteered their time, a truck and a trailer to transport the seven-ton state Workers Memorial stone 250 miles from the old Kentucky State AFL-CIO headquarters in Frankfort to its new home at the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, because ?we wanted to save the council some money.? Adair is council vice president and Williams is a delegate.

The 10-foot gray granite shaft is etched with a portrait of labor pioneer Mary Harris ?Mother? Jones and honors workers killed on the job.

When the state AFL-CIO headquarters was sold, the council asked for the monument, and state labor leaders approved the transfer. When it was time to move the monument last year, Adair says:

It took about four hours for us to drive to Frankfort to get the monument. The return trip took about twice as long.

The tire troubles started near Elizabethtown on the four-lane Bluegrass Parkway when Adair spotted a pothole. 

I missed it with the truck but hit it with the trailer. The right front trailer tire blew out. I had a spare and a jack in the truck. But I couldn’t find the jack.

Adair made a cell phone call to a wrecker service in Elizabethtown. “The guy came out and got the spare on and we got back on the road.” He tipped the man because, ”I knew we would need him again.”

Around 30 miles west of Elizabethtown on the West Kentucky Parkway, the spare went flat. He phoned the tire store again, but they had to wait about an hour and says Adair:

It was a hot day, and there was a big hog barn nearby. The smell was so bad it almost made your eyes water. I told my wife when I got home if she smelled hog dung, it was me.

The same guy showed up with a new tire for the trailer and a used one for a spare and the Machinists renewed their trek, confident with new rubber on the road. Near Princeton?about 50 miles from Paducah?the new tire burst.

We got to a convenience market, unhitched the trailer and drove on to Paducah. We got back about 9 o’clock.

The next morning, the duo returned to trailer with two new tires, a heavy-duty jack and bolted the tires and made the final 50 miles to Paducah without a hitch. Says Adair:

If the story of how we got the memorial here makes people stop and think about [the monument?s] true meaning, then our time and trouble was worth it.

Adair is also president of the Kentucky State Council of Machinists and directing business representative for IAM District Lodge 154 and Williams is retired from IAMAW Local Lodge 1294.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 05, 2011 (boomark / email).