Dan White
President, United Auto Workers Local 94
TH: How long have you been out of the factory and working here in the local headquarters?
DW: This is my fourth year. The first three years, I was not full-time down here. Darn near. With the number of retirees we have, this is a full-time job, but I haven't worked in the plant at all this year.
TH: But as recently as last year, you had also worked in the plant in addition to doing this?
DW: Yep.
TH: Is that unusual for a local of this size, with the number of members and retirees?
DW: It's kind of back and forth. We had a president who was off, I believe just about full-time. But we had a lot of members then. Then, as numbers went down, things changed and he was back in the plant. Then our previous president, he would work a day or two a week in the plant, depending on the workload down here (at Local 94).
TH: Is that work schedule something that you determine, or do you work it out with the company regarding hours at the factory?
DW: Well, it was not a good situation for either one because they couldn't hold a job for me. The way the plant is set up now where parts come down the line, you start with raw steel, it comes down the line and they drive a backhoe out the other door. You don't leave a spot open. And to have me come in a day or two a week, as one person said, "You're a nuisance." It was just impossible for me to go in there and work. Again, we have enough retirees and enough health care issues that, to do the job, you've just got to be here.
TH: I'm not real clear on this. Is your work schedule, related to factory hours, negotiated or communicated through conversation?
DW: Currently, the company has determined I will be down here full-time. We'll be looking at that again in the future to see how it's going. When tours come in, I go out and meet them. Talk a little bit about the UAW and the people on the shop floor. Answer questions for them. Meet them when they come back in for lunch and see how they've felt about the tour.
There's a lot of different meetings. We're involved in (Dubuque Area) Labor-Management (Council). The (Tri-State Health) CARE Coalition. United Way. I just ask Deere, I say, "I'm going to be involved in this. You have any problem with it?" They've been very good. No complaints at all.
TH: Are there any other members of the local here who are not employed at Deere? Or is it exclusively just Deere?
DW: Just Deere. We're not an amalgamated local.
TH: I didn't want to exclude anyone.
DW: That could change in the future that we might become an amalgamated. This place (Local 94 hall) was built when we were at peak number and when you go down to where we're at now, we've got a lot of room around here. We're probably going to have to do something.
TH: When does your term come up again, for president of the local?
DW: May of 2005.
TH: Then maybe it's a little early to ask if you're going to pursue it again.
DW: Yeah, I really have no idea. I'm eligible to retire. I enjoy it. This local means a lot to me and I want to make sure that it does carry on. Some of the new people that we've hired out there, they started immediately coming to meetings, wanting to be involved. So I feel very comfortable as to what I'm going to do. I just don't know.
TH: How long are your terms?
DW: Three years.
TH: So you were just elected a year and a half ago? May, 2002.
DW: Yes.
TH: Did you have somebody run against you last time?
DW: No. Or the time before. Is that a compliment or not? People come in and see this desk and there's stuff all over and they say, "I wouldn't have that job for love or money." We were just coming off vacation. I posted my phone number as we were leaving and said, "If something comes up, call me." Well, they did. People said, "Just tell them you'll be back Monday." I said, "It's not hurting anything to talk to them. That's my job." I'm happy to do that.
More on White's outside interests
TH: You were good enough to give me a resume. Does your wife go by Jackie or Jacqueline?
DW: Yes, Jackie.
TH: You've been married
DW: 35 years. Just celebrated that. It seems longer than that because we actually went to kindergarten together too.
TH: I was going to ask how you two met. You met in kindergarten at Prescott School?
DW: Yep.
TH: Now, you didn't hit it off right away, I trust.
DW: I don't know. I think we did. No, we were the same neighborhood; paths crossed different times. But in high school, she was actually dating a friend of mine in the neighborhood. We think a lot alike. I think we deserve each other.
TH: So when did you two then start going out? Was it later in high school or after?
DW: I think when I was about 17, yeah. We had partied together and this and that. Just one of them cases when you're actually on the same thought path or whatever and this and that, had some discussions and agreed on it and the next thing my relationship with my friend was strained a lot. But she really keeps me in line. She's just absolutely the greatest. I always tell people marriage can be the greatest thing in the world or it can be the worst thing in the world. And I'm very fortunate to have been blessed. And I know that I am. Good wife, good family. Doesn't happen to everybody. She puts up with me. I don't know how. The phone rings and this and that. Just you.
TH: Does she work outside the home?
DW: She putzes around. No, she doesn't work. Well, with the photography, she does a lot on that. She takes care of masking negatives and the business aspect of it.
TH: You've got a motorcycle. What do you drive?
DW: That's a Harley Ultra Classic sitting outside -- that my wife and I bought to travel the country. So far, we've been to Prairie du Chien three or four times. With the business on the weekends, I'm not able to get away. But I enjoy it when I do. I make deliveries.
TH: Do you ride it to work?
DW: Sure. Went down this week and did some photos at the United Way office. I just strap my bag on top of the carrier and down the road we went.
TH: You list golf, too. Are you any good?
DW: No. Everybody wants to play with me. I used to play a lot and I've just taken some lessons. I'm prepared. That could come become a part of my life in the near future. I will be ready. I enjoy it. I have good friends we used to play a lot with. I used to play four or five times a week. Golf is just great.
I tend to get into areas where you have time to just think. I've always enjoyed just walking the golf course and thinking. You play a better game of golf, I believe, when you walk it. When you're walking to that ball, looking at the green up there versus riding a cart back and forth.
TH: I'm with you there. Sometimes you get to your ball too quickly and you haven't gotten over the last shot yet. You have to go through that grieving process over that last shot before you're ready to take the next one.
DW: Yeah, when I think of what's wrong with my golf game, it's that I'm not mentally focused. Something goes wrong and you think what did you do? I don't even remember. I was thinking about what's for supper tonight or whatever. I've got to get to work and do this or that. So you need to concentrate on that.
More on unions' influence
DW:When I talk to our people and all our officers talk to our people, we encourage them to vote. We just believe that's the most important thing in the world. We're not getting into telling them how to vote. We might tell them how we think their vote, the people they vote for will play an influence on their jobs and things like that. But we want people out voting.
You don't have what you had at one time. It's not that people are turning against the union or anything like that, it's just the numbers are down. We had 300 people retire from the Dubuque Works in the last two years. Things change.
More regarding community colleges
TH: Leading question here. Does state government fund community colleges adequately, compared to the regent schools?
DW: No. It's been reduced year after year and what you're doing is shifting it to the students. The students, you have to pay your way, there's not doubt about it. Different philosophies, why should the taxpayer have to do this and that. But what is benefited by the community college is, again, I think money just absolutely well spent.
More on United Way services
DW: I knew a guy that lived next door to a little girl that had gotten her family out of a fire. She had been trained just earlier at the Girls' Club on how to evacuate. The house was on fire. The guy said, "Just imagine if she hadn't had that. If she would have panicked, locked herself in a closet or something like that, the family might have burned up."
The United Way is something. It really is. If everybody gives a little, you have a lot and it's good for the community.
I wish everybody had the opportunity...there are too many United Way agencies that we drive by and we know, well, that's this or that. You have no idea what goes on in there. Again, I have been very fortunate. I donate my time for them for photography, photograph the officers and things like that and used to go to some of the agencies for photos for their brochures. You know, they'd have to tell me what I was there for. I had no idea about Hoffmann Development Center (for people with mental disabilities). Those people out there are so happy. They're sorting nuts and bolts and this and that. So happy to have something to do. They wouldn't have that if it wasn't for the United Way agency.