[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 155 (Thursday, October 22, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                        HONORING ALBERT M. ELIAS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 22, 2015

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Albert M. 
Elias, who sadly passed away on October 16, for over 60 years of 
service to organized labor and to the progressive political community 
in Tucson and Pima County as a member of the International 
Typographical Union/Communications Workers of America Local 7026.
  Albert M. Elias represented the highest ideals of the labor movement. 
While others talk about the need for a strong labor movement to protect 
and enhance the lives of working people, Albert, for more than 60 
years, worked to advance these goals. While others have talked about 
how Pima County and southern Arizona need progressive political success 
to empower the ordinary and disadvantaged among us, Albert worked long 
hours helping politicians and movements advocate on behalf of these 
people.
  Using the printing skills he honed for most of his life, the 
knowledge he gained over more than six decades of how the printed word 
can help realize worthy goals, and the personal contacts his honesty, 
integrity and goodwill forged, Albert achieved much and has helped 
others achieve even more in advancing political movements, and the 
labor movement in particular.
  Albert, a fourth-generation Tucson native, joined the International 
Typographical Union of his maternal grandfather Francisco S. Moreno in 
January 1954 and committed himself to a career in the printing trade. 
Albert believed that union membership would improve the professional 
quality of his work as a printer, and enable him to develop meaningful, 
long-term relationships in his community that would benefit himself and 
his family, as well as his union brothers and sisters. Union 
membership, he believed, also would provide him with better income and 
with vacations and holidays off to spend quality time with his family. 
It was Albert's goal to provide his children with the wherewithal to 
excel in education through high school and go on to college if they 
desired. Time proved Albert to be correct. All three of the children of 
he and his wife, Viola Baine, are college graduates who are serving 
others in pursuit of their careers.
  Albert and his sister Aida Elias, the children of Alberto Spring 
Elias and Ermelinda Moreno Elias, always lived their lives as 
Christians and were dedicated to their religious faith. Albert 
maintained an active lifetime role in his Roman Catholic parish, based 
at St. Augustine's Cathedral in downtown Tucson. He served for many 
years as a member of its Parish Council.
  Albert's interest in the printing trade went back to his childhood in 
the 1930s. His grandfather Moreno had begun publishing the Spanish 
language El Tucsonense weekly newspaper as a member of the 
Typographical Union in 1915, but he died an early death in 1929. El 
Tucsonense continued publication under ownership of his wife, Rosa E. 
Moreno, and with the help of her five children--Ermelinda, Gilberto, 
Federico, Arturo and Elias. Before Albert's 10th birthday he was 
delivering El Tucsonense by bicycle to the Latino barrios that 
dominated much of downtown Tucson. He worked his way into the print 
shop during his years at Tucson High School to be a ``printer's 
devil,'' sweeping the floors, cleaning presses, and remelting the lead 
used to make ingots for the shop's linotype machines.
  After graduating from Tucson High School in January 1946, Albert went 
to the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles to learn more about 
printing. After completing those studies in 1948, Albert went to work 
in the print shop that published El Tucsonense, now being run by his 
uncle Arturo Moreno. That ended in late 1951 when Albert was drafted 
into the U.S. Army. He served in the infantry for two years before 
being honorably discharged. After his discharge, Albert returned to 
Tucson. But instead of rejoining El Tucsonense, Albert sought 
membership in the Typographical Union as a journeyman, skipping 
apprenticeship because of his experience. His skills earned him a 
position as a linotype operator in early 1954 with the Tucson daily 
newspapers, The Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Citizen.
  A bitter and ultimately unsuccessful Typographical Union strike at 
the Star-Citizen in 1966, over job-depleting automation and the 
companies' rejection of the union's demand for a pension plan, ended 
Albert's 12-year stint with the daily newspapers. Fortuitously for 
Albert, El Tucsonense was in the process of folding and he and a 
partner, Oscar Araiza, bought his uncle's printing shop. Araiza retired 
in 1991 and Albert ran Old Pueblo Printers alone thereafter.
  Upon taking control of the business in 1966, Albert and his partner 
began doing printing work for Tucson-area labor union locals and 
Democratic Party candidates for political office. One of the first 
campaigns for which Albert's shop printed the political literature was 
one of the late U.S. Representative Morris K. Udall's bids for office. 
Udall continued to use his services after that, as did Robert Kennedy 
for his assassination-truncated 1968 presidential campaign. Albert 
printed campaign materials for Raul Castro, who was elected as the 
first Latino governor of Arizona; for Ed Pastor, who was elected as the 
first Latino Congressman from Arizona; and for longtime Pima County 
Supervisors Sam Lena and Dan Eckstrom. I, too, came to Albert for my 
printing needs when I first launched what became a 12-year stint on the 
Tucson Unified School District Board. I continued to use Albert's 
services through 13 years on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and, 
finally, on my 2002 bid for Congress.
  During his career, Albert supported labor leader Cesar Chavez of the 
United Farm Workers, he supported the efforts of local Latino activists 
to get their fair share of federal funds to improve the homes and 
neighborhoods of their people, and he supported a landmark lawsuit 
forcing Tucson Unified School District to desegregate its schools. 
Albert was always fighting battles against those who seek to use their 
financial influence to their own advantage--and at the expense of 
ordinary working people.
  Albert M. Elias deserves special recognition, honor and respect for 
his six decades of union membership--and for his meritorious 
achievements during that time on behalf of working people and the less 
fortunate of Pima County and Southern Arizona. We will miss him dearly.

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