In Memoriam: "Rabble-Rouser" Jerry Tucker Dies

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Lifelong “rabble-rouser” Jerry Tucker died last Friday. “Jerry would want us to take this moment to rededicate ourselves to the great crusade for social and economic justice for working people everywhere,” said Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and Co-Chair of the DC Labor FilmFest. Tucker reintroduced work-to-rule strategies to UAW plants, winning critical early fights against concessions, which he battled as head of the New Directions Movement within the UAW in the 1980s. He helped found US Labor Against the War and the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, as well as the Center for Labor Renewal and just last year he helped train public employees in Wisconsin trying to reorganize in the aftermath of their uprising. Tucker received a Troublemaker's Award at the 2012 Labor Notes conference; click here to see his recorded remarks, where he says that “An informed and well-organized rank and file is at the center of every victorious struggle…The best fight-backs are organized horizontally.” Visitation will be held today from 4–8P at Archway Memorial Chapel (111 Taylor Road) in Hazelwood, MO; the funeral service will be held on Wednesday at 10:30A at Christ Our Redeemer, A.M.E. Church (13820 Old Jamestown Road) in Blackjack, MO.