My hero, Herb Bulter, has passed. He was on of the nicest, most helping soul on the planet.
His son summed his father up best:
"He was not an egomaniac," his son said, "but he loved attention. But in my book, he deserved every bit of it. He was quite a man."
MARIETTA
Herb Butler, 80, fighter for workers' rightsBy
HOLLY CRENSHAWThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 02/24/08
Herb Butler knew he'd face plenty of challenges as a union organizer in the South.
But in 1946, Mr. Butler was working at a small grocery in Dallas when he was transfixed by a group of workers who shuffled into the store.
"I saw men coming in covered with cotton dust, not able to breathe," he said in a 1987 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. "They wanted a union, but they were scared to death."
It was an image that never left him.
In 1948, Mr. Butler took a job at the General Motors' plant in Doraville. While he worked on the assembly line, he took on larger roles with United Auto Workers Local 10 and became a UAW regional representative. In 1971, he joined the UAW office as its Atlanta area director and stayed there until his 1990 retirement.
"Herb worked his way up through the ranks of the Local 10 and became such a fighter for workers' rights," said Sam McDowell of Marietta, the current UAW Atlanta area director.
"He had a strong reputation for defending workers and negotiating contracts," Mr. McDowell said. "When he took a position, he would stay with it. And even though he got criticized for it sometimes, I admired him for that."
Mr. Butler learned to brace himself for the bruises he inevitably suffered in the sometimes combative world of labor relations.
"We had some old hell-raising meetings," he said in the newspaper article. "We knocked heads and let the chips fall where they may."
James Herbert Butler, 80, of Marietta died of complications from lung cancer Thursday at Tranquility Hospice. The funeral is 1:30 p.m. today at the Herb Butler Union Hall, Local 10, on Buford Highway in Doraville. Benson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Butler spent decades traveling the East Coast, assisting with union-management negotiations, helping to resolve grievances and acting as a middleman between union headquarters in Detroit and the Southern unions his office represented.
"His main driving force was just a desire to help working people better their lives," said his son, Jim Butler Jr. of Edgemoor, S.C. "And he was all for keeping manufacturing jobs in America for American workers."
Mr. Butler drove Buicks, kept a "Buy American" pin attached to his union cap, and served as a 2004 Georgia delegate to the Democratic National Convention. A supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, he met her during her recent campaign stop in Atlanta.
"Herb supported Democrats who supported labor," Mr. McDowell said, "like Max Cleland, Roy Barnes and John Lewis."
Even at home, Mr. Butler surrounded himself with miniature cars, campaign buttons, union memorabilia and books on politics.
"He set up his basement basically like a labor museum," his son said. "It's a funny way to relax if that's your job, but that's how much he loved it."
Mr. Butler was "shocked and thrilled," his son said, when Local 10 union hall was named in his honor in 1983.
"They had a big barbecue and his mother and father got to see it dedicated to him and he got to give a long speech, which he loved to do," his son said.
"He was not an egomaniac," his son said, "but he loved attention. But in my book, he deserved every bit of it. He was quite a man."
