Remembering Fred Pecker
By Peter Olney
Fred Pecker, an ILWU leader for over 27 years, passed away on Thursday, December 20 in San Francisco.
I started working at the ILWU in San Francisco in December of 1997. International president Brian McWilliams told me soon after I started that I had to check in with one of his closest allies, West Bay Local 6 Business Agent Fred Pecker. Right off a couple of things struck me. First I had never heard SF referred to as the West Bay, but later I learned that Fred’s territory included the peninsula, San Mateo County, and his home workplace Guittard Chocolate in Burlingame where he had started with the ILWU as a worker in 1991. Second I wondered how tough Brother Fred needed to be to get thru elementary school, junior high and high school carrying the surname, “Pecker”. I figured he must have been steeled by schoolyard brawls.
I went over to the old Local 6 West Bay hall on 9th street up from Folsom and met Fred as he was finishing dispatch in the basement hiring hall. Fred immediately made a physical impression on me with his height and his long ponytail. I think he was wearing one of his classical colorful shirts that he never tucked in. Like many of my discussions with Fred from then on, he started in with the organizing targets that he thought were appropriate for us to work on, and he gave me a few leads. He also, amid the clutter of his Business Agent office on the second floor, asked me what kind of music I liked. I told him I liked salsa and merengue. He never forgot my tastes, and throughout our collaborations he would occasionally pull out a CD or a mixed tape with “my music” on it.
Early in 1998 bike messengers from the SF Bike Messengers Association (SFBMA) requested that we meet with them to talk about organizing the courier industry. We sat around the boardroom at the International headquarters on Franklin Street with an array of spiked, pierced and tattooed workers with names like Bok Choy and Rak. We agreed to affiliate the SFBMA and give them office space at 9th Street. They agreed to collaborate with us in organizing bike and courier drivers into Local 6 ILWU. Fred became the political, organizational and cultural leader of a drive that lasted for 4 years and brought two companies under collective bargaining agreements. I think he even rode his bike with them on several of their dramatic protest on wheels. He would always keep SFPD at bay at our picket lines.
The SFBMA met monthly at Local 6 and Fred was always there and often jammed with some of the “bikes’ with his bass guitar. My son Nelson was 11 years old at the time and he loved to come to these meetings and do his homework in the corner of the room. While he pretended to drill down on his homework his ears were cocked so that he wouldn’t miss the salty language of the messengers. Fred of course befriended Nelson and found out that he was a trombonist in his middle school band. So of course Fred had a CD for him: Fred Wesley and his Horny Horns! A little funk for a middle schooler!
In August, 2001 I took a job at the Institute for Labor and Employment at the UC and was gone from the union until September of 2004 when I returned as Organizing Director again. Fred was not happy with my exit and was somewhat cool to my return. He said to me in a moment of exasperation that no Local 6 member has the option to leave the working class and go to the cushy academy for a sabbatical. He had a good point, and that ideological commitment was a constant in his devotion to the maintenance of Local 6 as a viable union in the midst of plant closures and capital flight.
One of Fred’s finest hours was during the lockout of Teamster waste drivers by Waste Management Inc.(WMI) in the summer of 2007. Teamster drivers, who are the elite of the waste industry and paid far more that recycling or transfer station workers represented by ILWU Local 6, were locked out and received unemployment benefits. Fred organized Local 6 members to stand in solidarity with the drivers and not cross their picket lines. This resulted in huge financial hardships for many immigrant women, often single mothers who went without unemployment benefits because they were voluntarily participating in a solidarity action. With Fred’s leadership and the help of the Alameda Labor Council, the workers weathered the lockout and went back to work with their heads held high. In 2010, when Local 6 contracts with WMI came due, there was no such reciprocity on the part of the IBT. They crossed Local 6 picket lines. But no matter, under Fred’s guidance and devoted leadership the recycling workers achieved their goal of $20 per hour by 2019 and in the process organized new recycling facilities into the union. Si Se Puede!!
Fred intertwined the personal, political and cultural into all his work. He was a renowned chant master always welcome at any union’s picket line. He shared the love with his tapes and CD’s. He welcomed children into the hall. He tried his hand at a Pidgeon Spanish but always made sure there was a professional translator with the headsets so that the Spanish speakers wouldn’t feel ghettoized.
In late October I had occasion to visit Fred’s old neighborhood in Astoria Queens, close to where the controversial new Amazon HQ is going. With the help of Herschel and Naomi I found the location of the apartment building that Fred grew up in, Queensview Homes. I took a couple of cell phone shots of the building and the park and playground and sent them off to Fred. He responded immediately pointing out the corner where he used to hang out. I called him from that corner and after asking me why I was in Queens, he proceeded to tell me about three museums that I must not miss in Queens, and he directed me to a great Greek deli in the neighborhood.
My wife Christina had perfected the production of prickly pear icies that Fred was very fond of so we were frequent visitors at the Solomon Pecker house in St Francis Co-Ops over the last few months of Fred’s life. Each visit meant meeting new family and making acquaintances with old friends, some dating back to Fred’s grammar school days. Delightful people all with fascinating lives and a commitment to a broad mission of public service, as was Fred.
A couple of years ago, just before I retired from the ILWU, Fred and I decided to get together away from the fray to talk strategy regarding the Campaign for Sustainable Recycling. Fred told me to meet him at 16th and Moraga in the Inner Sunset not far from my house. We climbed the Moraga steps to a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean and the Bay. Fred would introduce me to several other “steps’ in the neighborhood. That was one of the many ways that he shared friendship, solidarity and love. I’ll climb those steps in his honor always. Love you Brother Fred!
Peter Olney
Retired Organizing Director ILWU
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I have just Tweeted this @steevcoco:
THIS IS AN UNBELIEVABLE HONOR FOR AN UNBELIEVABLE MAN: FRED PECKER!
WHEN THE SAN FRANCISCO MESSENGERS STRUCK, DOWNTOWN WORKERS THREW TORN CALENDARS IN OUR HAIR!
I left Fred my funky bass at his panhandle barbeque! BROTHER! RIP!
Love!
Steven!
I grew up in the same building with Fred in Astoria. He was an elementary school classmate of my deceased younger Corey and they played together after school. I have fond memories of Fred. He will be missed.
“You’re not the boss of me.” That’s what the email said – or at least the part of the email on which I was focused. Fairly new to the ILWU, I was a bit taken aback by this communication from Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer, Fred Pecker. I had interacted with Fred on a number of occasions by that point but did not know him well. And, while I was familiar with this saying, which was somewhat popular among folks of a certain age at the time, I couldn’t figure out what had elicited this response from him. Had I offended Fred in some way? I frantically looked at preceding email communications to see how something I’d said might have been misinterpreted but could find nothing.
When Fred called later that day to discuss whatever it was that we had been working on, he was friendly and everything seemed fine. At the end of the call he mentioned the “You’re not the boss of me” comment, noting that this was a retort his kids had recently taken to using with him. He thought it was funny and, I guess, he had given me credit for having a sense of humor. Mystery solved. I was relieved I hadn’t unknowingly upset him and realized, with Fred, things weren’t always necessarily as they seemed.
One might have assumed, for instance, that with his somewhat imposing stature, Fred could be intimidating to be around. But he wasn’t. He was soft-spoken and kind and a good listener. His long ponytail might have been misconstrued as a sign that he was a “hippy,” with a mindset stuck in the past. But that obviously was not the case; Fred was very much about the present and the future. He was always seeking to move his members forward to a place where they would enjoy better wages and working conditions and a better life in general; and, through his political activism, he sought to ensure that we had – or would elect – local leaders who would do right by working people.
I loved that Fred was amused when his kids said he wasn’t “the boss of them.” Fred’s sense of humor, including his ability to laugh at himself, was one of the things I appreciated most about him. It served him well in his role leading Local 6 for so many years and through so many challenges. I also appreciated Fred’s ability to continue hoping and fighting for a better future for the Local’s members, despite the many obstacles to organizing and the national trend of increasingly lower rates of union membership. He was incredibly hardworking and totally committed to serving his membership and the working class in general.
As the Local’s Secretary-Treasurer, a long-time Executive Board member of the ILWU International, and the head of the ILWU’s Northern CA District Council (the body that endorses local political candidates), Fred could have rested on his laurels and one might have assumed that he would be content doing so. But that assumption would be wrong as well. Despite his onerous official responsibilities, Fred seemed to be at every demonstration, every rally, every picket line – often with the bullhorn, leading the chants. No matter what the fight, he was on the scene and the ILWU was represented.
I worked most closely with Fred on the Campaign for Sustainable Recycling in Alameda County – an inspiring and successful campaign through which Local 6 helped set a wage standard for recycling sorters throughout the county. The campaign also was successful in organizing a group of recycling workers who had been working for a company as temps for years with extremely low pay an no benefits. With their first contract, these workers’ living standard and their lives improved significantly virtually overnight.
Fred worked tirelessly on this campaign and our ILWU team spent a lot of time together. As the leader of the Local, some might assume Fred would have put himself out front on the campaign. But he didn’t. He knew the workers were the best spokespersons for their courageous fight and always encouraged them to lead the way and speak for themselves. Many strong leaders developed through the Campaign for Sustainable Recycling.
Often Fred and I would drive together to meet with elected officials, workers, and allies. On our way, we’d discuss our approach to the meeting as music from Fred’s eclectic collection of cds played in the background – or perhaps foreground is more accurate. I rarely knew who the artist was, but Fred seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of genres and bands, and he was always happy to share it with me.
Frequently, after our meetings, we’d stop somewhere for lunch. A fellow vegetarian, Fred could be counted on for taking us somewhere that was friendly to non-meat-eaters. He liked a wide variety of foods and seemed always to know where to find the good places – the best Salvadoran place for pupusas, in San Leandro; a good Mexican spot in East Oakland; delicious Indian food in Fremont. He also introduced me to the fresh and enormous slabs of bread from the Afghan food stores in Fremont. We’d eat some right there in the car as we drove back – a generous supply lying in the backseat for his family to enjoy when he got home to San Francisco.
I was lucky to spend some non-working time with Fred, too – mainly during the Jewish holidays. After learning that my husband Matt also is Jewish, Fred often would invite us to celebrate Passover or Chanukah with him and Sue and their various family members and friends. It meant so much to Matt, who had no family in the Bay Area, to have the opportunity to mark these holidays at the Pecker-Solomon home. We both really appreciated the welcoming environment, the social justice themes they highlighted in the celebrations, and the delicious food. On one occasion at least, Fred spent what seemed like hours at the stove cooking the latkes.
I wish I had spent more time with Fred, but I’m grateful for the time I had to work with him and to get to know him. He was a unique and inspiring human being who helped many, many people and did a lot of good in the world. He’s left a large void – one which won’t readily be filled.
Pete, What a lovely tribute to Fred. There is no finer person. I remember many of the fights you described. It was my honor to have been on the picket line or march for justice with him. What a lovely person he was. He will be forever remembered by so many.
Rest In Peace
Brother Pecker
You will be missed
Dear Peter: Very nice remembrance of Fred – a character among characters in the labor movement – and someone who paid his dues without complaint and with pride instead.
May the next generation produce such dedicated people as well.
Am younger brother of Bill Shields, thus got to read the obituary of Fred. Via con Dios
Marty Shields