Workers welcome day of rest today

By CHRIS VETTER

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Several New Ulm businesses will be closed today, as workers relax and enjoy the Labor Day Holiday.

Darwin Streseman, union steward at Caterpillar, plans to head out for a ride on his motorcycle. Streseman said the holiday is important to union members across the area.

"People aren't aware that there are as many labor unions in New Ulm as there are," Stresemann said.

Most area union workers will have today off to commemorate the holiday.

An ardent advocate of unions, Stresemann said he is glad he joined the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union five years ago.

"When you don't have a union, a person can be fired with no recourse," Stresemann contends. "When you have a union in place, you have some sort of protection. A union protects a person from a bad company."

Stresemann stressed that he does not consider his company to be a bad employer, but he does believe some other companies are not fair to its workers.

John H. Heymann, vice-president of Heymann Construction in New Ulm, said his company has contracts with three separate unions: laborers, masonists and carpenters. Heymann praises the service and quality he recieves from union workers.

"We've been a union contractor for more than 50 years," he said.

Heymann said that in its present form, a union often works as a job service. If he is short on help for an ongoing project, he will call a union official and seek workers.

Heymann believes the classroom time served by union members is an added plus for using organized labor.

"These people that belong to unions go to classes on safe scaffold building or shoring," Heymann said. "It makes them a safe worker and a better worker."

The classroom service also shows a committment to work, Heymman contends.

"If they're willing to spend a day a month of their free time in a classroom, it shows their dedication to their work," he said.

John Gag, co-owner of Gag Sheetmetal in New Ulm, said his company uses both union and non-union help. Laborers who work on roofing are not unionized, but workers who concentrating on cooling and heating systems are unionized.

"We've coexisted nicely for years here," Gag said.

While Gag agrees with Stresemann that unions protect workers from bad companies, he doesn't think unions have the same importantance now that they once did.

"They were more valuable 50 years ago," Gag contends. "Now, it's just a matter of maintenance."