The National Labor College’s Class of 2001 graduated June 30 under sweltering heat at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland. While it felt like 104, that was the number of students, including two BMWE members, earning bachelor’s degrees in seven areas of union studies from the college. Another 14 received master’s degrees in public administration from the University of Baltimore. The college’s third graduating class, which included students from 28 unions, also enjoyed a cookout, prom and activities with their families. The college’s current enrollment is about 1,600. For more information on the National Labor College, write the George Meany Center for Labor Studies at 10000 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20903 or call 301-431-5422.

Member Profile: Henry P. Jajuga

Born in Ypsilanti and raised in the Garden City/Westland area near Detroit, Michigan, Henry Jajuga entered the military at age 17 and became an accounting specialist. At the time of his discharge, having been stationed at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California, Jajuga compared California and Michigan winters and made the decision to stay out west.

In 1979 Jajuga hired on with the Southern Pacific in the roundhouse and joined the Firemen & Oilers. After being laid off in 1980, Jajuga moved to Oregon and worked as an account analyst. After six months in the office he knew he didn’t like the confinement, so when he was notified about a position in the MofW department in Oregon, he jumped on the opportunity. Again laid off after five months, Jajuga then went back to college and was accepted into an RN program.

When the railroad called again to offer a 90-day job in Ridge Crest, California, Jajuga, who had just married his second wife Cindy, accepted because he thought he’d be back in time for the Fall semester at college. That 90 days has now turned into 20 plus years working as a maintenance of way crane operator.

During those 20 years Jajuga has resided in all of the Southern Pacific western lines states which include Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas (El Paso) and Utah. Up until about two years ago, Cindy, along with their two children, traveled with him. At that time, however, they decided Joshua, age 17 and Ashley, age 16, needed a more permanent home base. (Jajuga also has an older daughter Sarah with his first wife.)

Home-schooled since the second grade, Joshua and Ashley have had the advantages of a wide range of educational experiences. For example, one history lesson related to Native Americans included walking the Cochise Trail, visiting Ft. Bowie where a child of Cochise is buried and hiking the old "hiding grounds" in the Chiracahua Mountains in Arizona.

Always involved with the BMWE "behind the scenes," around 1992 Jajuga "came to the realization that I may be of some use" and also "realized what a heavy union influence there was in the area where I was raised." He has been Local Chairman of Pacific Federation Local Lodge 227 since 1996 and President since 1997.

In August 1998 he participated in a four-day hazardous materials training course at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies and "immediately fell in love with everything which peaked my interest to come back for more." Coincidentally but somewhat significantly, there at the same time was a contingent of railroad employees from Czechoslovakia, which is where Jajuga’s ancestors came from. Jajuga says they had a "fantastic baseball game."

In addition to becoming a HAZMAT trainer himself, Jajuga quickly enrolled and began taking his first classes at the National Labor College in January 1999. He graduated on June 30 magna cum laud with a double major in labor education and occupational safety and health. Jajuga encourages "everyone to stop holding back that thought in the back of your mind to do something and jump in with both feet because it will probably be one of the best experiences of your adult life. And not only is it an opportunity to increase your schooling but it’s an even greater opportunity to receive education on the labor movement as a whole. It really opens your eyes when you’re studying with brothers and sisters from so many different labor affiliations. There’s really a smorgasbord of labor there [at the National Labor College]."

Jajuga knows continued education is in his future but where or when he’s not certain just yet. For now, in addition to working on the railroad and for the BMWE, he’s applying himself to "reading for pleasure" the six novels he bought while completing his senior paper.

Member Profile: Richard H. Minser, Jr.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Rich Minser traveled a lot growing up because his father worked for the railroad. Jack Minser worked 42 years for the Baltimore & Ohio, starting out in the Transportation Department as a clerk and eventually becoming a superintendent. From 1938 through 1960 he was a member of BRAC.

Following his graduation from a Newark, Ohio high school, Rich Minser joined the Marine Corps. After his discharge, Minser went to work for the Chessie System as a train operator and also became a member of BRAC. Furloughed often, Minser decided in 1985, after a nine-month layoff, to move to Newark, Delaware to be near his mother who wasn’t well at the time.

Minser then got a job in a mill work company that was non-union. With his background, including his first job at age 16 in a unionized grocery store, Minser knew that "this was a work place where employees weren’t afforded the rights that employees were afforded with a union." Using the disparate pay rates as a core issue, Minser and a co-worker called the Carpenters Union and with them began a successful organizing campaign.

Minser has been an enthusiastic Harley-Davidson rider for about 20 years. So in 1988, he decided to enroll in the Motorcyle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. After 57 weeks of training, he became a factory-certified Harley-Davidson mechanic. Over the next several years, Minser worked in several shops in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He says "it was a labor of love because the pay just wasn’t there."

In 1993 Minser got a call from a friend who said Amtrak was hiring maintenance of way repairmen. He soon applied, took a test and was hired. "By then I knew the ins and outs of organized labor and I was very pleased to be back on the railroad and in a union job."

Minser, who had always attended local lodge meetings, became Local Chairman of Pennsylvania Federation Local Lodge 3095 in 1997 because "I felt I could do a good job and I could make a difference." In 2000 he added the Delaware State Legislative Director duties and responsibilities to his active life.

Minser and his wife Carla have been together for 14 years and married for the past six. A co-worker of Carla’s, then a secretary and president of AFSCME Local 2377, at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, told her about the educational opportunities available at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. Carla enrolled in the National Labor College in 1997, received her bachelor’s degree in 1999 and her master’s degree in public administration this June. She is now a staff representative for AFSCME and is involved in training and education for union members.

"Carla talked about how great it [the college] was all the time and really inspired me," says Minser, "and then I went there for HAZMAT training and saw for myself." Minser enrolled in 1998 and graduated cum laud in June with a bachelor’s degree in labor studies and labor organizational dynamics and growth. He’s now thinking about taking law-oriented post-graduate courses.

"It’s [graduation] a personal accomplishment but more importantly, it furthers my commitment to the labor movement and serving my brothers and sisters in the BMWE. I would like to see other members take advantage of the educational opportunities at the National Labor College. A Woody Guthrie song says ‘some men rob you with a six-gun, others rob you with a fountain pen.’ College gives you the ammunition and teaches you the power of the pen along with other strategies and tactics that help you work to level the playing field between labor and management."