- Collection:
- Southern Labor Archives
- Title:
- James "Jimmy" Walker oral history interview, 2005-11-22
- Creator:
- Walker, James
- Contributor to Resource:
- LaPorte, Philip A.
- Publisher:
- Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 2005-11-22
- Subject:
- Labor unions--Officials and employees
Labor unions--Organizing
Brewery workers--Labor unions
Merchant marine
Service Employees International Union - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, 33.79025, -84.46702
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798 - Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
audiocassettes
interviews - Type:
- Sound
- Format:
- audio/mpeg
- Description:
- Born in Dahlonega, Georgia, Jimmy Walker is the son of north Georgia farmers. In 1945, Walker made his way to Atlanta to find work. Joining the U.S. Maritime Service, he was sent to St. Petersburg, Florida for training and, upon being assigned to the U.S. Army Transportation Service, was sent to San Francisco. In 1958, Walker returned to Atlanta and found a job at the Carling Brewery, becoming a member of the International Union of Firemen and Oilers, Local 288. Quickly rising to the position of shop steward, Walker later served on the negotiating committee until he was elected business agent of Local 288 in 1971. Walker was appointed as Vice President of the International Union of Firemen and Oilers in 1977 and as President in 1985. In 1998, the year of his retirement, Walker was honored as President Emeritus of the Service Employees International Union-National Conference of Firemen and Oilers.
Walker briefly discusses his background before talking about the beginning of his working life in some detail. Speaking about his time in the U.S. Maritime Service and in the U.S. Army Transportation Service, Walker recalls having seen Japan, Okinawa, and Europe; he was at Inchon, Korea during McArthur’s invasion in September 1950 as well. During his time in the Army, says Walker, he trained as an engineer, which helped him secure a position as senior operating engineer at Carling Brewery in Hapeville, Georgia. Walker immediately joined the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, which represented the engineering department at Carling. After briefly discussing his 13 years as shop steward and negotiating committee member at Carling, Walker talks about his election to the position of business agent for Local 288. Walker says that as business agent he concentrated on organizing new members in Florida and Tennessee as well as preserving and improving labor contracts in Georgia. He admits that his success as a negotiator and organizer helped his ascent to Vice President as well as President of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. Walker goes on to discuss his involvement with the Democratic National Convention meeting in Atlanta in 1988. He says that along with the pressure that local clergy and civic leaders exerted, his negotiations with the management of the Hilton Hotel concerning a labor contract helped prevent a potentially disastrous situation in which the California and Louisiana delegations would have declined to attend the convention. Perhaps his most important contribution to the union, he opines, was his role in negotiating the merger of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers with the Service Employees International Union in 1994. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/labor/id/6092
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/labor:6092/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to this item is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this item available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: Walker, James "Jimmy," interviewed by Philip LaPorte, November 22, 2005, Voices of Labor Oral History Project, Southern Labor Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
- Extent:
- 01:33:45
- Original Collection:
- Voices of Labor Oral History Project
http://research.library.gsu.edu/VoicesofLabor
Southern Labor Archives - Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
