Conversation with Francis Barton, longest serving president of AFSCME Local 1776 (2000-2013), and for a few years before vice-president under Charlotte Chandler-Laroe (Charlotte Coates at the time). Memories of growing up in Athol, Mass., during the era of World War II.; German prisoners of war in Athol; relatives in the service; father worked as a woodpecker in the Quabbin and then in Southbridge; began work at Perkins Machine Co., in Warren, Mass.; workplace culture and fellow workers (00:27:20); work in woollen mills in South Barre, Mass.; workers and workplace culture (00:38:55); arriving at UMass after developing cancer and selling his farm.
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