On Saturday November 2, the weekend before the big national election, family and friends of Glenn Perusek gathered for his memorial at the Slovenian National House on St Clair Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. I was honored to speak at Glenn’s memorial. Here are my remarks:

.

“I am very happy that Gail and Dawn, Glenn’s sisters, decided to hold this memorial in the Slovenian National House. I think Glenn had an office and a living space here for a while. I know Glenn was exploring his Slovenian heritage, and I believe a trip to Ljubljana and greater Slovenia was on his agenda. I know that when I met him in 2005 he was using Perusek, but more recently his name became Perušek. (Sek vs Check) I hope I got the accent right. I called his cell phone the other day just to hear him pronounce it. Christina Perez and I were looking forward to meet up with him in Slovenia on one of our trips to Florence, Italy.

Glenn did visit us for a week in Florence in 2017. He met our Italian friends and engaged with them on everything from food to politics to futbol soccer! We make a point of awarding our guests in Florence some recognition based on their stay with us. For instance do they do the dishes or make their beds? His time with us in Florence was great, and he won “Best Male Guest”!!

In his capacity as Director of the Center for Strategic Campaigns at the AFL-CIO, Glenn safeguarded resources for my union, the ILWU. We waged several epic battles organizing a large Rite Aid distribution center in the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles and battling an employer lockout in the Mojave Desert at a borax mine owned by the giant multi-national Rio Tinto.  Glenn made sure we had the research and staff support to prevail. Because of him, the ILWU, a small but powerful union of 45,000 members, got more support per capita for new organizing than any other affiliate of the national federation.

After I retired from the ILWU in 2013, Glenn brought me on in 2015 to help teach Heat and Frost Insulators how to organize and opened a whole Building Trades instruction world for me. I had no idea what a heat and frost insulator was? We were a great team and made a lot of new friends. Tommy Williams, an accomplished organizer, and at the time Director of Organizing of the Heat and Frost Insulators, who is with us today used to call Glenn “The Professor”, a whimsical term of endearment and reverence.

What made working with Glenn so fruitful was his overall willingness, despite his rigorous traditional academic training, to call “audibles”, sports parlance for employing flexible teaching methods, to draw on the intelligence and experience and creativity of the building trades students. We would engage a student organizer at lunch, and if they had some experience or expertise Glenn would tap that student to be a presenter in the PM session. 

We instituted a regular talent show at the end of the 4-day classes where we invited students beforehand to bring their poetry, musical instruments and rap to the closing session. I will never forget a Canadian Vice President of the Cement Masons, and accomplished blues harp player, stepping up in Ft Lauderdale and serenading us with some Latin tunes that he had played previously at the Buena Vista Social Club in Havana, ninety miles away. A dear friend and co-instructor colleague of Glenn’s who was not able to be with us today; Melissa Shetler is an accomplished jazz singer and closed out one of our sessions with a live performance.

Glenn was a great comrade to me and many in our labor world. He opened new pathways in my life. I think one of Glenn’s biggest recent achievements was putting together the John Womack book, Labor Power and Strategy that is very much in play and being read by young organizers everywhere. It was Glenn’s insight that made the book so unique and powerful. I thought of interviewing the Harvard historian John Womack about labor power in production and logistics systems, but it was Glenn who suggested that we get 10 of labor’s best and brightest organizers and thinkers to respond to Womack’s theses. This has generated a rich dialogical work that provokes thought and discussion and healthy controversy. This was part of Glenn’s commitment to the up and coming generation of new organizers – Ride Share Kevin, Noah Carmichael, Deven Mantz, Carey Dall and Taft Mangas. Oh and don’t forget veteran unionists like Chris Scarl who Glenn helped get elected to the City Council of North Olmstead, Ohio.

This memorial of course coincides with the final push for the national elections. Christina Perez and I are in Orange County, CA working to flip several House seats to the “D” column and I know Glenn would be with us in spirit and curious as to our findings on the “doors.” But the Perusek Memorial takes precedence on our calendar because of our love for Glenn and our deep curiosity to learn more about our dear Brother from his family and friends. Our curiosity abides…

We go back to Orange County for the final push and we dedicate our work to Glenn Perusek. Glenn Perusek Presente!”

.

The booklet that is presented here on The Forum was designed and produced by Gail Perusek and Dawn Stang, Glenn’s sisters. It was distributed to all the attendees at the memorial.

To view the booklet fullscreen: Click the symbol on the far right of the line below the image

…