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UAW Solidarity
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UAW Solidarity
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1966-01-01
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Vol. 9 No. 1
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UAW’s first contingent
of Peace Corpsmen are
about to leave for Africa.
Trained during a unique
UAW-Peace Corps program,
this is their story
By FRED
UAW
McTAGGART
Region 5 Staff Writer
W..2:
am I doing in the Peace Corps?
That’s a good question. What AM I doing
in the Peace Corps?”
The speaker is John O’Stach of Anaheim,
Calif., a pipe-smoking 49-year-old tool-anddie maker at North American Aviation.
John has put in 30 years in the shop, mostly as a member of UAW Local 600 in Detroit
and lately of Local 887, Los Angeles.
Next month, John will start fresh on a
new seniority ladder in a strange land. On
Feb. 1, he will leave with a crew of UAWPeace Corps volunteers for a two-year mission in the Republic of Guinea—a small country along the west coast of West Africa.
‘People ask me:
‘What’s the matter with
you?’ Joining the Peace
Giving up $800 a month
Corps
at your age?
to work
for $75 a
month somewhere in Africa? Why that’s 11
—
an hour less than you got back in the
’
*s
Y
“They
could
mention
the
new
language
and the physical training and those damn
typhoid shots.”
John has no illusions about the Peace
Corps. He knows he is in for two years of
hard
work
under
difficult conditions
away from his college-age children.
far
What does the Peace Corps have to offer
John O’Stach? Until the two years are over,
no one can answer that question.
(Continued on page 5)
PE
The UAW is training a cadre of about 50
staff members and local union leaders who
will
serve
eventually
as
“international
troubleshooters” for the union as part of
the new drive toward international cooperation between unions of the free world.
The
first group
of 23 students
recently
completed an intensive four-week course of
study in Washington and Detroit under the
auspices of the UAW’s
International Affairs Dept. and the Leadership Study Center, headed by Brendan Sexton.
In the nation’s capital, they visited the
embassies of Sweden, Nigeria, Great Britain, Israel and Yugoslavia, among others,
for briefings by top embassy officials. U.S.
Page
4—UAW
SOLIDARITY—January,
1966
State Dept. also filled them in.
Other lecturers included the nationally
known economist Robert Nathan and U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Labor George L. P.
Weaver.
:
In Detroit, experts from the University
of Michigan and Wayne State University
joined top UAW officers like Vice Presidents Leonard Woodcock and Pat Great-
house in leading discussions.
The 23 staff members have now returned
to their home communities and their normal
staff duties but will continue their education in foreign
affairs by taking night
courses at leading colleges in their area.
Pat ear cm
iti
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