The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi

About this book

A CIA-connected labor union an assassination attempt a mysterious car crash listening devices and stolen documents--everything youd expect from the latest thriller. Yet this was the reality of Tony Mazzocchi the Rachel Carson of the U.S. workplace; a dynamic labor leader whose legacy lives on in todays workplaces and ongoing alliances between labor activists and environmentalists and those who believe in the promise of America. In The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi author and labor expert Les Leopold recounts the life of the late Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union leader. Mazzocchis struggle to address the unconscionable toxic exposure of tens of thousands of workers led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and included work alongside nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood. His noble high-profile efforts forever changed working conditions in American industry--and made him enemy number one to a powerful few. As early as the 1950s when the term "environment" was nowhere on the political radar Mazzocchi learned about nuclear fallout and began integrating environmental concerns into his critique of capitalism and his union work. An early believer in global warming he believed that the struggle of capital against nature was the irreconcilable contradiction that would force systemic change. Mazzocchis story of non-stop activism parallels the rise and fall of industrial unionism. From his roots in a pro-FDR immigrant family in Bensonhurst Brooklyn through McCarthyism the Sixties and the surge of the environmental movement Mazzocchi took on Corporate America the labor establishment and a complacent Democratic Party. This profound biography should be required reading for those who believe in taking risks and making the world a better place. While Mazzocchis story is so full of peril and deception that it seems almost a work of fiction Leopold proves that the most provocative and lasting stories in life are those of real people.