Homage to My Working Class Roots

Anne Meixner
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

The unofficial end to summer arrived today with the Monday holiday — Labor Day. While it often signals the return to public schools and one last trip to the beach the holiday honors the US labor movement. The movement fought for worker safety and economic rights in our capitalistic economy. Thanks to labor activists we have the 8-hour work shift, the 5-day work week, child labor laws and safety regulations. I have union members on both sides of my family. Today I pay homage to these relatives.

My mother, Betty Regan Meixner, spent most of her working career as a Math teacher in public schools. An overwhelming majority of those days writing on the black board occurred while substitute teaching. As someone who could actually teach the subject she found herself in demand. The flexibility this work offered her while providing primary childcare for me and my siblings- much appreciated. The long-term sub assignments occurred on occasion and usually came with pay commensurate with full-time teaching. In the latter half of the 1970’s a budget cutting superintendent for Montgomery County schools proposed to cut the pay for those very assignments. This caused my mother with other to organize with the substitute teachers. They joined the union and fought that proposal. Fair pay for the work done!

Jim Regan, my maternal grandfather, worked as a master carpenter- framer- in New York City. Son of an Irish-American industrial arts teacher, he was a union man. His son Daniel, my uncle and godfather, became a master carpenter- cabinetmaker. Just watching him carefully unwrap his Christmas gifts spoke to not only the attention to detail but the refined movements required to do such detailed work. Jim Regan died before my parents even met. My uncle worked different jobs through-out his working life. I recall him sharing the adage of a carpenter- “measure twice cut once.” He shared a vignette of learning on the job. The overseer took his hammer and cut off half the handle- “You’re not using the lower half.” A hard-earned lesson of using your tools properly- i.e. there’s a reason the handle is that long — use it. No lesson in physics of how a lever works, just a very blunt teachable moment.

My father’s father, Herman John Meixner, immigrated to the United States from Vienna Austria in the early 1920’s. As war veteran he had experienced the hardships of being on the frontlines and of losing relatives to food shortages. The new opportunities in American beckoned. While he had lined up a job in New York City a relative met him at the boat and insisted he come with him to work on the farm in Pennsylvania. In the end he found farm life unappealing.

He found work in the Pennsylvania Coal mines. His future wife, Josephine Schrader, grew up in South Fork, Pennsylvania. Her Lithuanian immigrant father worked in the mines and told his sons- “get out of the mines as soon as you can.” The danger, back breaking work combined with low pay were not lost on my illiterate great-grandfather. My grandfather eventually became a labor organizer for the union. I can imagine as a war veteran that he had a certain stubbornness required for such work. Clearly not a popular person with the coal mining companies. At some point my grandfather had to go in hiding because his life was threatened due to his union activity. Decades later my father uncovered this story by doing research and aligning his parent’s correspondence with old West Virginia newspaper articles.

I don’t belong in a union, my chosen profession- engineering tends not to have unions. Yet my working class roots resonate in how I approach corporate management and my working rights. The organizing gene, if it exists, lives in my make-up and I’m grateful that I can do so without fearing for my life. For let us not forget that the labor movement has its fallen.

Today, I lift my glass to my relatives who participated in the labor movement. To whom do you lift your glass?

Anne Meixner

Anne Meixner lives and works in Portland Oregon as an engineer and writer. She regularly posts stories from her life as an engineer at The Engineers’ Daughter and she curates engineer’s stories for this site. http://www.engineersdaughter.org/their-stories/

Anne Meixner

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Anne Meixner lives and works in Portland Oregon as an engineer and writer. She regularly posts stories from her life as an engineer at The Engineers’ Daughter a