To the end, Nichols stayed loyal to union members

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/302262353580374.php

Published: Saturday, July 28, 2007
To the end, Nichols stayed loyal to union members

Nichols' philosophies have influenced both labor and management.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — To the end, Nick Nichols cared about his union brothers and sisters.

Nichols, 64, who died Thursday, insisted on receiving his care for lung cancer at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital, because there he could be treated by union employees, said Debbie Bindas, president of the AFL-CIO of Mahoning and Trumbull County and his friend for 25 years.

Nichols was a longtime leader of the International Union of Electrical Workers Union Local 717 at Packard Electric. He was diagnosed with cancer in March.

"Nick wanted to stay in the Valley and be treated by union nurses," she said.

Bindas, a nurse who first met Nichols while president of her union at Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, says she spoke with Nichols many times during the course of his illness. That's why she knows that Nichols even represented workers from his hospital bed, she said.

In one conversation, he told her about a worker with a seniority problem.

"You need to think about yourself," Bindas said she told him.
Woodlands

Bindas said Nichols' teaching is "in every part of what I do in the labor field." His mentoring began when he introduced a new process of cooperation between union and management in the early 1980s. He brought a labor-management team to Hillside after a strike at Hillside there to mend the relationship.

The philosophy was important enough that Nichols and management officials traveled the country giving seminars on cooperation.

His philosophy

Nichols' philosophy was that the company's problems were also the employees' problems.

Union members wore buttons at the time that said, "If we're not working together, we're not working at all," she said.

"I still continue on that every day," she said, adding that she feels that what she learned from Nichols has helped steer Forum Health through the "terrible crisis" of its financial problems over the past year.

Jim Clark, president of IUE-CWA, said in a news release that Nichols was "a union man in his soul, always fighting to improve the lives of workers and their families."

Jack O'Connell, former president of the AFL-CIO of Greater Youngstown, called Nichols a "very strong leader."

O'Connell added, "He was very outgoing and very outspoken and knew what he was doing. He enjoyed the work. Nothing bothered him."

Warren Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said Nichols was a leader for all causes – labor movement, social issues and good government. "When he was involved in a cause, he gave his head, soul and body, and we will miss him," the mayor said.

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Saturday, July 28, 2007