Reproduced from TV411 in Print (issue #28).

EXCERPT FROM "THE CARD"

In this excerpt from "The Card," published in The Heat: Steelworker Lives and Legends, (Cedar Hill Publications), Kathi writes about her grandfather (The Duke) and her father -- two proud and loyal holders of the steelworkers' union "Card."

The Duke was a steel-working man. For fifty-one years he ate the dirt of the mills, like his father before him and his son afterward….He was the original owner of The Card.

The Duke and his brother traveled by boxcar to Indiana from the coal miles of Pennsylvania, looking for a better life than the mines had to offer. They were both hired by U.S. Steel. My grandfather was the brawn and his older brother was the brain and the mill sorted them out. The brother was sent up the ladder to a job in accounting, The Duke continued to eke out a living by the strength of his back. When his brother went salary and my grandfather went union, the feud began.

Never again to speak to one another, the brothers lived on opposite sides of the same street. As a child, my father got the worst beating of his life for crossing that street on his bike. My grandfather beat him with a belt all the way home. Until then, my father didn't even know he had an uncle, even though it was his only living relative in the country. My father never laid eyes on his uncle until The Duke died.

After the funeral, my father became the owner of The Card. He found it as he sorted through the remains of my grandfather's only belongings. No gold or diamonds, no money or antiques, just some old suits and a box of papers. The Card was nestled at the bottom of the box. My father carried it for the rest of his 43 years in the mill, where he worked as a switchman on the railroad....

He told me The Card had mystical power in the hands of someone who believed in it. The Card got its power from the workers who had fought and died to make the union possible. He said the strongest power was the power of the people. The bosses, management, capitalists, and the government were all afraid of the power the unions held, he said. He gave me The Card when I started my 30-year prison term at the mill.... He made me promise to carry The Card no matter where my life took me in the mill. It has been a promise I've kept....

To hear more from Kathi, tune into season 3 of TV411.