IBEW member for 50 years, and an activist to the end
She was initiated into IBEW Local 1245 on April 30, 1962—and her dues were still paid up.
Helen Gan receives her IBEW 50-year service plaque from Business Manager Tom Dalzell and Business Rep Debbie Mazzanti in 2012.
Helen Gan—a hard-working, big-hearted, and fervently pro-union woman—died April 15. Still working at age 76, she was a Senior Accounting Clerk II at PG&E, her employer for 53 years.
Sister Gan was dedicated to the concept of worker unity. As recently as last year she brought her energy and her life story to the cause of organized labor as a spokeswoman for the campaign to defeat Proposition 32, the infamous anti-union ballot measure.
Even without the red sweater, Helen Gan stood out in any room. The guy to the right of her is IBEW President Ed Hill. To the left of her is IBEW Ninth District Vice President Mike Mowery.
“I don’t understand those people who do not pay union dues, but are pleased to take the benefits the unions bring them. Don’t they see that companies give nothing unless the union fought for it?” Gan said in a campaign piece.
She didn’t need consultants to tell her what to say in the campaign, didn’t need to memorize a pro-union pitch. When it came to telling the truth about unions, Helen Gan wrote the book.
Helen Gan at a recent union meeting. From left: Executive Board member Anna Bayless-Martinez, Local 1245 Treasurer Cecelia De La Torre, Gan, Senior Assistant Business Manager Dorothy Fortier, and Business Manager Tom Dalzell.
Sister Gan’s belief in worker rights was born of her own personal experience as a woman of Chinese descent trying to get a job at PG&E at the start of the 1960s.
“I was one of the first non-whites they hired,” she recalled last year. “Chinese women are strong, not the china dolls seen in movies; as soon as we had an issue, we hollered for the shop steward. On my first job evaluation, the supervisor noted, ‘She is a fast and accurate keypunch operator, but she is defiant.’ ”
When IBEW President Ed Hill visited San Francisco a couple of years ago, he wanted to meet with some Local 1245 members to learn about the issues that concerned them. Local 1245 brought our best to the fore—we introduced President Hill to Helen Gan.
Hill was charmed to meet someone with more than 50 years of IBEW membership, but he quickly came to realize that Gan was more than just a sweet-faced 76-year-old woman who still managed to get to work every day. She was charming, a straight talker, and probably as strong an advocate for the IBEW as any member Hill ever met in his wide travels.
“She was one of my great heroes,” said Local 1245 Business Manager Tom Dalzell. “I admired her so.”
A lot of people admired her so, and mourn her passing. She made us better.