My father rarely talked about his work. His job was in what was then called employee relations. In an era when unions were much more powerful than they are today, he represented management in labor negotiations. Early in his career he worked for a steel company and later for a large food manufacturing corporation. His companies had plants scattered across the United States and Canada, and he often traveled for work, living in a hotel room until the current dispute or contract negotiation was resolved.
Dad told me one brief anecdote that has stuck with me over the years. Contract negotiations were always difficult and costly, and my father thought the best agreements were forged when both sides walked away from the table believing they’d been cheated. Yet, as difficult as the negotiations were, at the end of the day, labor and management would head to a bar and drink together. They argued viciously during the day, but they went out together each night. He remembered those days with great fondness, and the story has stuck with me because it seems so unimaginable today.
My father’s career spanned the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and the men he worked with—they were all men in those days—had much in common. Dad served on a destroyer in World War II and the Korean War, and many others around the bargaining table, both labor and management, were also veterans. In the days before cable…
