by Larry Sillanpa, Editor, Labor World Newspaper
A white ballot cast for new officers of the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body Nov. 12 found Dan O’Neill in line to be president for 2010-11.
The white ballot means there are no contested races and so no December elections will be necessary. Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson, who was elected Oct. 1, is expected to make her first trip to Duluth to swear in the new officers at the Dec. 10 meeting.
O’Neill told his fellow delegates Nov. 12 that labor is in his family’s blood, and “I love this group.”
A 37-year member and current president of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 11, O’Neill said his parents were both members of the Communication Workers of America.
“My dad had a Saturday morning coffee group that would discuss unions and politics,” he related, “and my mother loved to walk picket lines. My dad would put us in the car and we’d go drive by the picket at Northwestern Bell, and dad would say, ‘There’s your mother.’ Mom would be smiling at us.”
O’Neill served two five apprenticeships, one as a plumber, another as a pipefitter.
“A steamfitter is a pipefitter with a high pressure steam license that you get after being certified by the state,” he said. “On the job we’re just known as ’fitters.”
After O’Neill became a journeyman he was elected to his union’s executive board, the apprenticeship committee becoming a pipe welding instructor for 13 years, a trustee on his pension board, and a delegate to many labor bodies. Three years ago he was elected as president of his local union. He also serves on the Labor World Board of Directors.
For the past 12 years O’Neill has been an organizer with the Minnesota Pipe Trades. His jurisdiction has been roughly Minnesota north of Hinckley, and Wisconsin north of Spooner.
“Our motto in the MN Pipe Trades is ‘Workers for Workers’ and that’s just what this group is about,” O’Neill told Central Body delegates.
Being president of the Central Body is a very political position and O’Neill is very aware of the importance of politics in the lives of working families. “My first literature drop for a candidate was as a Cathedral High School student in 1968,” O’Neill related. “Hubert Humphrey came and spoke to us in his run for president. After that an announcement came over the loud speakers that if any students wanted to do a half day lit drop for him they would be released from school. His speech was unbelievable and I was all over that lit drop. I don’t know if that ever happened again in a school but it did then.”
O’Neill will retire on December 31 from the MN Pipe Trades and Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 11.
“I’m not planning to disappear, I’m planning on having more time,” he said about taking over the Central Body presidency in the same month he retires.
O’Neill has lived most of his life on Park Point after growing up there. Rowing has been a big part of his life.
“I started going over to the Rowing Club when I was 13,” he said. After starting out as a coxswain, he went on to be a three-time national champion rower in his age division. In 1993, he finished second in the World Championships on the Danube River in Vienna. “I lost the title by half a second out of 136 rowers,” he said, “but I did survive 12 years of Catholic schools.”
He serves on the Duluth Boat Club Project Board that is trying to rebuild the proud tradition on Park Point.
Netland will be VP
The December 10 Central Body meeting will be the end of 12 years with the gavel for President Alan Netland. Like O’Neill and his retirement, Netland isn’t going to disappear. In fact, he will be sworn in as the Central Body’s vice president.
“I’m going to retire from St. Louis County, which will give me much more time to be more active in union interests,” he told fellow delegates Nov. 12.
Netland has been involved in the labor movement, and DFL politics, since the 1970s. He has been a delegate, executive board member, treasurer, and/or president of countless labor organizations locally and statewide.
He currently is president of the Duluth Central Body, the North East Area Labor Council, and his local, AFSCME 66. He plans to continue as NEALC president.
Netland has been president of the Duluth Central Body since 1998. He had also served the labor body as vice president and treasurer prior to becoming president.
Alan Netland to be honored
The December meeting of the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body is usually a quick one as delegates and guests are ready to celebrate the holidays and the year’s end. The meeting on Thursday, Dec. 10 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Duluth Labor Temple’s Wellstone Hall should be a little different, however. It will be the last meeting that Alan Netland chairs as president and recognition of that fact, along with a little roasting, may be in order. Netland will actually be moving from the podium and be sworn in as vice president of the Central Body that night. In light of his many years of service leading the trade union movement in Duluth a ceremony has been scheduled.