Forging a Union Family
When I began work in the lab at the Constellium Rolled Products plant in Ravenswood, W.Va., the guys who’d worked with my grandfather there before he retired called me Hoot.
It had been their name for him. So it was an honor to inherit it. And their granting me the moniker they’d first bestowed on him made me feel embraced by the union family at Constellium.
This is what my grandfather, Luther Howard “Hoot” Gibson, had always told me that he cherished most about work: the extended family it gave him. He was proud of his labor as a maintenance man at the plant and proud of the aluminum he helped produce. Most important throughout his life, though, has been the fellowship with his United Steelworkers Local 5668 brothers and sisters.
In so many ways he taught me that while it’s important to do any job well, real job satisfaction comes from building bonds with co-workers. He constructed enduring relationships with union brothers and sisters, friendships that would stand the tests of time and travail.
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