Last Man Standing

Last Man Standing

— for Bea Crockett

By Rudolph Lewis

Like a black pontiff at age 71

Nick spread forth a great feast

of salmon, fruits, and cakes, for

a magician king every moment

every chair becomes his throne.

He’s at Hyatt in Inner Harbor

conclaving, his soldiers armed

with the union card & promises

of dignity & integrity & defense

against slave drivers of the poor.

15 years after the split I’m at his

table, a black hole of the universe—

a Mississippi boy made good in NY,

Philly, a national leader – no Ph.D.

& wields power like she his woman.

“I should have killed him when

I had a mind to.” His eyes burns

into the brain. He’s got this Mafia

Philly-NY all in the air, rocks the

poetic ground on which I stand.

“I knew he was going to sell me

out. I respected his wife, she I

listened to. But he broke the leash

for what, to cakewalk in this town?

Power is bloody, and to the death.”

His words. I smiled. I handed him

my letter years ago. I was a 1199er.

“The real leaders were killed off

or sold out. The rest were followers

I’m the last man standing.”

He ran their names down. “He’s

dead . . . they’ll all dead. I made

them. They betrayed me. And

look where they now. All dead

no power. We’re still moving.”

I spoke of his nemesis & rival. “He’s

driven into a one-way alley, and he

can’t turn around. He’ll say anything

these revolutionaries, with no vision to

remake the world, still losing workers.”

Feared, adored, mystifying Nick is

from the crypt. And though an SOB

treacherous & dangerous I like him

he’s stayed the course. “No tears for me

just go pass out some muthafuckin cards.”

* * * * *

In my youth I was a union man in Dr. King's favorite union (Local 1199) 1969-1972; and returned in 1987-1990. The in-fighting and the hunger for personal power, that is, power over those nearest, where friendship and more spiritual matters are placed to the side, it all was too heady for a small town boy like me. One union leader I've known 35 years, I sat with recently, ate, and talked. The poem above was my response to that encounter. I knew Bea Crockett. I last saw her in 1990 just after the National Union of Hospital and Nursing Home Employees were divided up, after local elections (including one in Baltimore), between AFSCME and SEIU, two international unions, looking desperately for new members. Bea had mixed loyalties and paid heavily by her neutrality -- Rudy

* * * * *

posted 25 April 2005

Beatrice Crockett-Moore

Passed over March 2005

--Executive Vice President, Baltimore District 1199E-DC (1986 to 1990)

--Secretary National Hospital Union (1984 to 1990)

--Executive Secretary Baltimore District 1199E-DC (1978 to 1986)

Beatrice Crockett-Moore, born in North Carolina, moved to Baltimore in August 1957 and worked several months as a domestic.

In November 1957, Beatrice ("Bea") was hired by Johns Hopkins Hospital as a housekeeper. As a daughter of tenant farmers, Bea knew what it was to work long backbreaking hours, in the sun, come rain or storm. She was a stout woman not easily moved. Baltimore's own Fannie Lou Hamer.

Crockett-Moore said she earned more money picking cotton in Carolina than as a Johns Hopkins housekeeper. Hopkins paid $18.75 a week. Beatrice said she could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day, at three cents a pound. Still I think she was glad to be out the fields and in Baltimore.

When Local 1199 came to Baltimore in 1969 Beatrice was a nurse's aide in Hopkins medical department. She was instrumental in Local 1199 Hospital & Nursing Home Workers Organizing Committee's drive in Baltimore. And Hopkins was/is the largest of the private health care institutions. It employed thousands of "non-professional" (housekeepers, dietary, nurse assistant, laundry, engineering) workers.

Crockett-Moore served on the first Local 1199 negotiating committee, that raised service and maintenance employees' paycheck by as much as $25 a week.

Elected as an 1199 "delegate" Bea defended (in the shop) the contractual rights of fellow workers. It was a new day! A new kind of thinking was grinding its way to light. Bea was a bulwark for those who feared reprisals from the petty bosses. During this period she worked as a dental assistant in Hopkins' OPD Dental Clinic. In the mid-70s, Beatrice served on the District Executive Council, representing Johns Hopkins Hospital workers.

As a woman leader, in a union with majority black women, Beatrice Crockett was very inspirational, her dedication, her sacrifices were exemplary and modeled what black women could do in labor in leadership positions. These women did the real work of holding the union and our society together. And often they are invisible, even by the men who have "their" interest at heart. Beatrice was active in other women's groups, labor organizations, and community organizations.

In her tenure with 1199 National Hospital Union and District 1199E-DC, Beatrice Crockett served as

--Member, National Union Executive Board

--Trustee, 1199 Benefit/Pension Plan

--Member, 1199 Unity Committee

--Member, Coalition of Labor Union Women

--Health Round Table

--Member, NAACP Labor Division

Honors

--Recognized for leadership in the Labor Movement during "Baltimore's Herstory Week" by International Women's day Committee (1987)

--Recognized by Maryland's Legislative Black Caucus (1984)