Today in union history…
Well, OK, it wasn’t actually today, but I was reminded of it recently.
Who writes the stories?
The railroad put out the story of Casey Jones as a mighty hero. He was willing to work when nobody else wanted to. (Sound familiar?) The rest of the railroad workers were on strike. The trains couldn’t run. The railroad owners stood to a lose a lot of money if they couldn’t settle the strike.
The railroad workers, by the way, were demanding increased safety regulations and equipment. Too many of them had died in unsafe operations, but it would cut into the owners profits to do the required maintenance and procedural changes they were demanding, so they refused.
So the workers went on strike.
Enter Casey Jones. If nobody else was willing to drive that train, he sure was. And he did. He drove it, exceeding maximum safe speed to make sure its load got to where it was going on time. He was willing to risk his life, and the life of everyone else on board, to safeguard the owners’ profits. There was a huge bonus in it for him.
Of course, you know the rest of the story: He didn’t make it. The shipment didn’t make it. By putting his own personal bonus ahead of the interests of all the other workers, he became victim to the very safety flaws that his fellow workers were striking to fix.
And, of course, a lot more safety regulations were passed in the wake of the famous tragedy. The railways made him out to be a hero, and in a way he did indeed become a martyr to the very cause he was scabbing against.
But, maybe you’ve just heard the story of how he was willing to do what had to be done, and deliver the cargo on time. And died a hero.
And that just shows the power of who tells the story.