[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IN REMEMBRANCE OF VICTOR VAN BOURG

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                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in sadness to pay tribute to the 
passing of Victor Van Bourg, one of the nation's most respected and 
legendary labor union lawyers and senior partner of the nation's 
biggest labor law firm. He was 68 years old.
  Raised by parents who were union organizers, Victor entered the 
University of California at Berkeley and graduated from Boalt Hall 
School of Law in 1956. He began his noted career working in the general 
counsel's office of the California Federation of Labor where he met 
Cesar Chavez and began working for Chavez' National Farm Workers Union 
prior to opening his San Francisco law office. In 1966 he represented 
Cesar Chavez' union--known then as the National Farm Workers Union--in 
its merger with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.
  One of Victor's most recent victories included a unanimous California 
Supreme Court decision that upholds a labor agreement under the 
authority of the San Francisco Airport's Commission to contract 
exclusively with union labor on the airport's multi-billion dollar 
expansion project.
  Throughout his 44-year law career, he argued four times before the 
U.S. Supreme Court and made numerous appearances before the California 
Supreme Court. His labor law firm became the largest labor law firm 
representing over 400 unions in the United States including the Service 
Employees International Union.
  Victor fought unrelentingly for working men and women of America and 
improved the living standards of untold numbers of people. He will be 
truly missed by his family, friends, and colleagues in the San 
Francisco Bay and national communities.
  I sadly extend the condolences of my constituents and my colleagues 
to the Van Bourg family.

           [From the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 13, 1999]

  Labor's Farewell to a Friend: 1,000 at Palace of Fine Arts Remember 
                            Victor Van Bourg

                         (By Steve Rubenstein)

       Victor Van Bourg, the legendary labor lawyer who sometimes 
     worked out of his big blue car and wore a miniature meat 
     cleaver for a tie tack, was remembered for four decades of 
     sticking up for the little guy.
       The little guys of the Bay Area and their union leaders and 
     lawyers showed up at the Palace of Fine Arts theater to say 
     farewell to the larger-than-life union man who helped raise 
     their salaries and their morale.
       ``He was hirsute, 50 to 100 pounds overweight, noisy, 
     literate, vulgar and profane,'' said University of San 
     Francisco English professor Alan Heineman, whose union Van 
     Bourg helped organize in the 1970s. ``He was often wrong but 
     never in doubt.
       ``He was a great, shaggy, menacing bear who became a 
     ballerina at the bargaining table.''
       Van Bourg, 68, whose Oakland law firm represented 400 
     unions, collapsed and died October 26 at San Francisco 
     International Airport. He was rushing back from Washington, 
     D.C., to be with his gravely ill daughter, who died the same 
     day.
       Nearly 1,000 labor leaders, lawyers and other friends of 
     Van Bourg filled the hall, hummed along to ``Solidarity 
     Forever,'' told each other the earthy stories that Van Bourg 
     was fond of and trooped to the stage to deliver encomiums.
       Sal Rosselli, the president of Local 250 of the Service 
     Employees International Union, praised his friend's ``spirit 
     of defiance and in-your-face unionism. . . . He was afraid of 
     no one.''
       Everything about Van Bourg was big--his waist, stamp 
     collection, ego, client list, appetite and the sound of his 
     voice across a courtroom or a bargaining table.
       ``He had an irreverence for judges, particularly federal 
     judges,'' recalled a former law partner. ``He used to tell 
     me, `When you appear before them, remember what class they 
     represent.' ''
       His secretary recalled that most employees in the office 
     had been fired by Van Bourg a couple of times but ``generally 
     had the presence of mind to come to work anyway.''
       When they did, she said, they would often find Van Bourg 
     conducting business not from his desk but from the front seat 
     of his car, which was parked in front of the office.
       ``Bicycle messengers would make deliveries to the car,'' 
     she said.
       An ironworker thanked Van Bourg for ``keeping my a-- out of 
     trouble.'' An engineer thanked him for ``being on my side.'' 
     A janitor thanks him for ``caring about immigrants and the 
     most disempowered members of society that no one else would 
     care about.''
       A native of New York and a graduate of Boalt Hall School of 
     Law at the University of California, Berkeley, Van Bourg was 
     a former socialist, painter, musician, raconteur and patron 
     of Russian restaurants. The memorial which lasted more than 
     two hours, at times resembled nothing so much as a marathon 
     bargaining session.
       Heineman speculated that Van Bourg was probably hard at 
     work filing a grievance over his death, calling it an 
     ``arbitrary and capricious act by Management,'' and no one in 
     the hall was betting against the grievance being upheld.

     

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