James "Jimmy" Walker oral history interview, November 22, 2005

Interviewed by Phil LaPorte: Walker briefly discusses his background before talking about the beginning of his working life in some detail. Speaking about his time in the U.S. Maritime Service and in the U.S. Army Transportation Service, Walker recalls having seen Japan, Okinawa, and Europe; he was at Inchon, Korea during McArthur’s invasion in September 1950 as well. During his time in the Army, says Walker, he trained as an engineer, which helped him secure a position as senior operating engineer at Carling Brewery in Hapeville, Georgia. Walker immediately joined the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, which represented the engineering department at Carling. After briefly discussing his 13 years as shop steward and negotiating committee member at Carling, Walker talks about his election to the position of business agent for Local 288. Walker says that as business agent he concentrated on organizing new members in Florida and Tennessee as well as preserving and improving labor contracts in Georgia. He admits that his success as a negotiator and organizer helped his ascent to Vice President as well as President of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. Walker goes on to discuss his involvement with the Democratic National Convention meeting in Atlanta in 1988. He says that along with the pressure that local clergy and civic leaders exerted, his negotiations with the management of the Hilton Hotel concerning a labor contract helped prevent a potentially disastrous situation in which the California and Louisiana delegations would have declined to attend the convention. Perhaps his most important contribution to the union, he opines, was his role in negotiating the merger of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers with the Service Employees International Union in 1994. Union Represented: International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers; Service Employee International Union - National Council of Firemen and Oilers