“A UNION MAN THROUGH AND THROUGH”
JIM McCAULEY, 1940-2011
Jim McCauley was no stranger to controversy.
“Jim was a real hell-raiser,” said Ed Vallejo, who served with McCauley on the Local 1245 Advisory Council and PG&E negotiating committees in the 1970s.
McCauley, who died July 4 after a long battle with cancer, ruffled plenty more feathers when he ran for business manager against incumbent Jack McNally in 1983. He lost, badly, but he was not a bad loser. He picked himself up and jumped right back into union affairs, was elected by the membership to serve as vice president for several terms, and was hired as an Assistant Business Manager in 2001, a position he held until he retired from the union in 2005.
“Jim was a union man through and through. He always did his best, 110%,” said Vallejo.
McCauley’s involvement in the union dates back to the early 1970s, during the battle to achieve agency shop at PG&E, according to McNally, who was the union’s East Bay business representative when McCauley worked in the PG&E gas department in Oakport.
“He was an active member,” said McNally. “He really had a lot of concern for the members. He wore his feelings on his sleeve.”
McCauley got a chance to demonstrate that concern through his service on several PG&E bargaining committees in the 1970s.
“Jim and Ed Vallejo and I were on at least three different negotiating committees together,” recalled Jack Hill. “We were like the Three Musketeers.”
It was around that time that McCauley started paying close attention to a woman named Margie who was employed in the Local 1245 office at the time. Wedding bells soon followed. At a memorial service on July 29 in Pinole, McCauley was remembered as a family man who loved to travel, loved to participate in sports, and was dedicated heart and soul to his union. And, especially, to the members in the PG&E gas department with whom he worked in the field for many years.
Stood Up for Gas Guys
“He stood up for all the gas guys who don’t get mentioned much, and I think that meant a lot to them,” said Art Freitas, who now serves in McCauley’s old position of union vice president. “All the gas people had somebody they could go to, and Jim made sure the gas guys were represented on whatever was going on.”
Mike Scafani, who has been active in union negotiations with PG&E for many years, echoed that view.
“He was working to improve the wages and stuff for the Gas T&D Department since 1969. I know he worked diligently to do it, sometimes with some success sometimes not much success,” Scafani said.
In 2008, after McCauley had retired, those efforts bore fruit when PG&E finally agreed to make historic improvements for gas workers. Scafani said that McCauley called him up when he heard about it.
“He was overwhelmed and overjoyed that the Gas Department finally came up to the journeyman level wage rates and crew leader wage rates. He had been very adamant about the gas department getting that wage increase,” Scafani said.
Educating About the Union
McCauley was keenly interested in educating others about the union. He led many union orientation sessions for new people starting out at PG&E, and he was very involved in the apprenticeship program.
“He really liked working with those new people coming in, putting out for whatever their needs were. He surrounded himself with those people,” said Bob Choate, who recently retired as Senior Assistant Business Manager.
McCauley’s cheerful greetings and ready handshakes were a big part of who he was. They might be little things but they are things that people remember.
Former Business Manager Perry Zimmerman met McCauley in 1978, when McCauley was a business representative and Zimmerman was a shop steward coming into the union hall for the first time for a committee meeting.
“He was the first one to come up and shake my hand and introduce himself to me. And as long as I’ve known him, I never heard him say a bad word about anybody,” Zimmerman said. “I think he was one classy guy.”