Guild’s ‘nice guy’ hangs up his spurs

Bruce Meachum, Retired TNG Representative

01 Dec 2009

The Guild Reporter

The Newspaper Guild’s nice guy is finally bowing out: Mike Burrell recently announced that he is retiring as a sector rep. Of course, he made the same announcement last year, but that departure was aborted. So, for the second year in a row, I bought an airline ticket to attend the farewell dinner hosted by his colleagues in Washington.

Mike Burrell

In 1991, Mike was recruited by TNG to be part of its latest brainchild, the Bench-Strength Organizing Program, in which rank-and-file members worked as fill-in organizers when needed. Mike got his first taste of travel for the Guild when he worked on the successful drive to organize correspondents for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He then left the Denver Guild in April 1994 to become an international representative with The Newspaper Guild. It didn’t take him long to wind up in the thick of things. When the Detroit newspaper strike began the following July, Mike was assigned to help and for years thereafter was embroiled in that nasty struggle. In the strike’s later days he even became publisher of the strike newspaper, the Sunday Journal. If you ever have a chance to talk to Mike, ask him to tell you about the Sterling Heights picket lines. They made a real impression.

Mike made some of his own impressions in Detroit: “Our local owes a great debt of gratitude to Mike Burrell”, said Lou Mleczko, president of the Detroit Guild. “He was magnificent both during the strike and in our rebuilding afterwards. Very few people gave us much of a chance of surviving after the strike. Mike was a key component of our planning, and of our strategies. He gave sound advice in bargaining and in organizing. He provided motivation, moral support and, when it was needed, tough love. Mike is a marvelous rep and a good friend.”

Leo Ducharme, another retired TNG representative, spent a lot of time working with Mike in Detroit. “He is easily one of the most dedicated, hard-working, and conscientious people I ever worked with,” said Leo. “He is also fun.”

Leo and I agreed on another superlative for Mike: He is the worst syllogomaniac we ever met. “He’s a pack rat,” said Leo of Mike in Detroit. “He never throws away anything. For a while, our apartment was full of boxes of files that were never opened. He would carry so much stuff with him that you would never see him without two briefcases, one in his hand and one over his shoulder.”

My experience with Mike has been pretty much the same. I expect he will have to hire a shredding company and dump truck to come to his home to rid his office of all of the archaic files it must hold. If he can give them up, that is.

I never worked with Mike in Detroit, but after I went to work for TNG, our paths crossed many times. When we did work together, I was always glad he was there. In late 1999, the negotiations I was helping with in Seattle ended in the newspaper strike, so I immediately pled with headquarters: “Send Mike.” They did, and I was grateful every day he was there.

Mike touched many Guild people in his years as a representative. Besides Detroit and Seattle, he worked in such far-flung places as Cincinnati, Kenosha, Hilo, Honolulu, Knoxville, Memphis, Denver, Southern California and Regina, SK among others. Everywhere he went people quickly came to respect him and to see him as a nice guy and friend.

I am able to state empirically that Mike ended his career with the same zeal with which he began. In a neat set of bookends for me, I was lucky enough to work with Mike on his last assignment with the Guild. I have been doing some post-retirement contract work for the California Guild working with court interpreters in Southern California. As luck would have it, Mike was assigned by TNG to help out on the project. I asked Silvia Barden, president of the California Federation of Interpreters, for her observations about Mike. Here’s what she wrote:

“Mike Burrell can easily be mistaken as someone who is just a nice guy. He is, in fact, a nice guy, but he is also shrewd, intelligent and hard-working and most importantly, happy to help. He was assigned to work with the court interpreter unit in April and very soon made himself indispensable. With his strong work ethic he immediately rolled up his sleeves and got right into the world of dealing with interpreters, court administrators, judges and other unions. He attended numerous meetings and patiently and methodically plowed through months of bargaining history from our stalled negotiations process in Los Angeles. He willingly shared his knowledge and experience when asked and provided gentle guidance to those of us with less experience, for which I am very grateful. The only complaint I have about Mike is that he eats more than any human being I have ever met and still stays skinny.”

Why Mike so easily earns the “what-a-nice-guy!” label was brought home to me a couple of months back at a meeting of union and court officials that he, Silvia and I attended in Los Angeles. When we walked in, there were 15 or 20 union folks in the room. Silvia went to speak to some people she knew. I didn’t know anyone, so I sat down. Mike didn’t know anyone either, but, gregarious as ever, he put down his briefcase and sheaf of (important?) papers and proceeded to work the room like a politician. By the time he left the meeting, everyone there was his friend.

So, now Mike’s leaving the Guild. I know he and his wife, Mary, are looking forward to a time of enjoying life and each other. But everyone I talk to in the Guild says they wish he weren’t going. They say it’ll be a great loss. That he is one of a kind. That he is a uniquely great guy.

All of those things are true, of course, but I, for one, hope he really retires this time. I can’t afford to keep buying airline tickets to his retirement dinners.