[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E731-E732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO JACK POWELL ON HIS INDUCTION TO THE UPPER PENINSULA LABOR 
                              HALL OF FAME

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, since 1993 eleven outstanding labor leaders, 
individuals who have contributed to organizing, workplace fairness, 
worker dignity, and the advancement of the labor movement in northern 
Michigan, have been honored with induction into the Upper Peninsula 
Labor Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is housed in the Superior Dome on 
the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
  I have the honor once again this year to participate in this 
important and inspiring induction ceremony, which pays tribute to the 
dedicated efforts of the late Jack Powell of Escanaba on behalf of the 
labor movement.
  Jack Powell had the kind of working career that could be the outline 
for an adventure novel. He was wildcat oil drilling at 13. Wildcatting, 
Mr. Speaker, is the risky venture of drilling a well outside a known 
field. It's a fitting start for life that included pioneering labor 
efforts in northern Michigan.
  After some years as a painter and wallpaper hanger in Chicago, Mr. 
Powell came to the

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Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the late 1930s, to find work, and he 
found it in the iron mines. In 1944 he was the first man to be assigned 
as an International Representative of the United Steelworkers of 
America on the Marquette Iron Range.
  Jack was known as an outstanding leader and a tough negotiator, and 
he made clear he had joined the labor movement to improve working 
conditions in the mines. He was active in organizing and negotiating 
for all USWA locals in the Upper Peninsula, but in the history of the 
Northern Michigan labor movement, Jack Powell may be best known to many 
for providing strong leadership and keeping his workers united during 
the 104 days of the 1946 Iron Mining Strike.
  In a long career that ran until his retirement in 1965, Jack was a 
member of the Michigan AFL executive board, a legislative 
representative for the United Steelworkers of America, and he was a 
good friend of August Scholle, better known as Gus, the Michigan AFL 
president at the time. A self-educated man, Jack was also a close 
friend of former NMU President Edgar Harden.
  Married to Marie Bracco of Ishpeming, Jack had two stepdaughters, one 
step-granddaughter, and three step-great-grandchildren.
  I look forward each year to the opportunity to gather with friends 
and associates in northern Michigan to praise these men and women, 
people like Jack Powell, who have dedicated themselves to doing great 
work as an ordinary, everyday task. I ask my colleagues in the House to 
join me is praising these remarkable efforts.

                          ____________________