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The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi
A CIA-connected labor union, an assassination attempt, a mysterious car crash, listening devices, and stolen documents--everything you'd expect from the latest thriller. Yet, this was the reality of Tony Mazzocchi, the Rachel Carson of the U.S. workplace; a dynamic labor leader whose legacy lives on in today's workplaces and ongoing alliances between labor activists and environmentalists, and those who believe in the promise of America. In The Man Who Hated Work and Loved The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi , author and labor expert Les Leopold recounts the life of the late Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union leader. Mazzocchi's struggle to address the unconscionable toxic exposure of tens of thousands of workers led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and included work alongside nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood. His noble, high-profile efforts forever changed working conditions in American industry--and made him enemy number one to a powerful few. As early as the 1950s, when the term "environment" was nowhere on the political radar, Mazzocchi learned about nuclear fallout and began integrating environmental concerns into his critique of capitalism and his union work. An early believer in global warming, he believed that the struggle of capital against nature was the irreconcilable contradiction that would force systemic change. Mazzocchi's story of non-stop activism parallels the rise and fall of industrial unionism. From his roots in a pro-FDR, immigrant family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, through McCarthyism, the Sixties, and the surge of the environmental movement, Mazzocchi took on Corporate America, the labor establishment and a complacent Democratic Party. This profound biography should be required reading for those who believe in taking risks and making the world a better place. While Mazzocchi's story is so full of peril and deception that it seems almost a work of fiction, Leopold proves that the most provocative and lasting stories in life are those of real people.
540 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 21, 2021
So good. And so haunting--what if Tony Mazzocchi had actually succeeded? Everyone organizing around the Green New Deal (really everyone organizing around labor at all) should read.
October 3, 2025
Towards about the back third of this book a cloud of depressing reality starts to envelop you as we get closer to the present day. You start to see the world unravel into what it’s become now, and everything Tony worked for fade into a dream like state of irrelevancy. But I think to linger on that particular feeling would be doing a great disservice to his life, and also his work. It’s easy to get caught up in the what-ifs of the America that Tony was damn near close to shaping, but the instant solace in our situation are the more horrifying what-ifs of a world that never had mazzochi in the first place. It’s easy to call this book “a biography about the guy that got OSHA passed”, but that is perhaps the tip-top-iest peak of all ice bergs. This man was Joe Hill levels of roots at the tree of labor, especially for his generation. We do live in a post-mazzochi world, but whether he failed America or America failed him has a strikingly obvious answer, and it is even more apparent how much worse off we’d be without ever having him.
March 11, 2010
Tony Mazzocchi's picture should be up in your grandparents house next to their pictures of the Pope and Frank Sinatra. Because there is a good chance that they are still here because Tony Mazzocchi had vision, intelligence, organizational abilities, and skills, to lead the fight for a cleaner, safer, healthier workplace.
Of course, he would hate that, and he would be the first to say he doesn't deserve that much credit. Which might be true. But what he does deserve is this book, which was wonderful, inspiring, and a tad depressing. And he deserves to have more people know what kind of world he stood for. The world would be worse off without Mazzocchi, and the labor movement will continue to be worse off if we ignore his vision for the future. I'd highly recommend this to anyone in and around the labor or environmental movements, or really anyone who has a passion for social justice.
Of course, he would hate that, and he would be the first to say he doesn't deserve that much credit. Which might be true. But what he does deserve is this book, which was wonderful, inspiring, and a tad depressing. And he deserves to have more people know what kind of world he stood for. The world would be worse off without Mazzocchi, and the labor movement will continue to be worse off if we ignore his vision for the future. I'd highly recommend this to anyone in and around the labor or environmental movements, or really anyone who has a passion for social justice.
July 14, 2020
What a whirlwind of history that uses a labor militant’s life to uncover untold histories of the labor movement and radical politics in the second half of the twentieth century.
“At a benefit concert for the 3M workers at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where Springsteen got his start, the singer came pretty close to articulating Mazzocchi’s position: ‘When a company comes and exploits natural resources, there are laws that say they have to replenish those resources,’ Springsteen told a packed house. ‘ Yet when a company comes into a town and exploits our greatest natural resource, our workers, there are few laws that protect the people...’”
“At a benefit concert for the 3M workers at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where Springsteen got his start, the singer came pretty close to articulating Mazzocchi’s position: ‘When a company comes and exploits natural resources, there are laws that say they have to replenish those resources,’ Springsteen told a packed house. ‘ Yet when a company comes into a town and exploits our greatest natural resource, our workers, there are few laws that protect the people...’”
November 16, 2020
Being a member of the United Steelworkers union, I'd heard about some of the work Tony Mazzochi did for the safety and health of workers around the country with OCAW, but Les Leopold really delves into the workings of a man who without a doubt needs to be lionized much more in the world of Labor.
From his early life, until his later years, Mister Leopold gives a full look at Mazzochi's career and how if not for the roadblocks thrown in his way by the party politics in the inner workings of OCAW's Executive Board, he could have been a household name, uttered in the same breath with the likes of James Hoffa.
Many of the things American's are fighting for now, such as universal healthcare and a form of UBI, Tony Mazzochi was fighting for over 50 years ago. Mister Leopold gives so much insight into these issues and many more that Mazzochi tried to win for all workers, and does so without losing the readers interest.
From his early life, until his later years, Mister Leopold gives a full look at Mazzochi's career and how if not for the roadblocks thrown in his way by the party politics in the inner workings of OCAW's Executive Board, he could have been a household name, uttered in the same breath with the likes of James Hoffa.
Many of the things American's are fighting for now, such as universal healthcare and a form of UBI, Tony Mazzochi was fighting for over 50 years ago. Mister Leopold gives so much insight into these issues and many more that Mazzochi tried to win for all workers, and does so without losing the readers interest.
December 1, 2010
An engrossing and important book about one man's journey in the labor movement. Tony Mazzocchi was a visionary, left-wing militant that spent his life fighting for working people. This book is a well-written and insightful account of his life, including his personal failings that so often seem to accompany those that are dedicated to causes larger than themselves.
Without Mazzocchi, it is a fair assumption that OSHA may never have come to exist, the connection between workplace safety and environmental health may not have been made, and alliances between labor and the environmental movement would be even more tenuous than they are now. Perhaps his most well-known exploit was encouraging atomic worker Karen Silkwood to expose unsafe practices at an nuclear power plant. Silkwood was eventually killed by her employer (her car was run off the road)out of fear that she would turn over evidence that the plant was at risk to the union or the media.
Some of the workplace conditions described in the Man Who Hated Work but Loved Labor are so awful that one can scarcely read about them without feeling sick. Again and again, employers say nothing is wrong, or that the workers are somehow responsible for their own illnesses, or that it is too expensive to provide a safe workplace. Passages where Mazzocchi and the union work to intervene will have you burning with righteous fury. Other sections explore Mazzochi's efforts to eventually become president of the union, and his disillusionment with electoral politics and efforts to build a labor party in the United States.
If the labor movement ever hopes to recapture some of the power it used to command, it will certainly need more leaders like Mazzocchi--leaders that recognize the fundamental incompatibility of a safe and tolerable working environment and unrestrained corporate power. When other labor leaders were cutting deals with management, Mazzocchi built a radical union out of petrolium, atomic, and energy workers that was willing to challenge existing power paradigms. This is a great book about how the labor movement could look with the right priorities.
Without Mazzocchi, it is a fair assumption that OSHA may never have come to exist, the connection between workplace safety and environmental health may not have been made, and alliances between labor and the environmental movement would be even more tenuous than they are now. Perhaps his most well-known exploit was encouraging atomic worker Karen Silkwood to expose unsafe practices at an nuclear power plant. Silkwood was eventually killed by her employer (her car was run off the road)out of fear that she would turn over evidence that the plant was at risk to the union or the media.
Some of the workplace conditions described in the Man Who Hated Work but Loved Labor are so awful that one can scarcely read about them without feeling sick. Again and again, employers say nothing is wrong, or that the workers are somehow responsible for their own illnesses, or that it is too expensive to provide a safe workplace. Passages where Mazzocchi and the union work to intervene will have you burning with righteous fury. Other sections explore Mazzochi's efforts to eventually become president of the union, and his disillusionment with electoral politics and efforts to build a labor party in the United States.
If the labor movement ever hopes to recapture some of the power it used to command, it will certainly need more leaders like Mazzocchi--leaders that recognize the fundamental incompatibility of a safe and tolerable working environment and unrestrained corporate power. When other labor leaders were cutting deals with management, Mazzocchi built a radical union out of petrolium, atomic, and energy workers that was willing to challenge existing power paradigms. This is a great book about how the labor movement could look with the right priorities.
August 2, 2008
This is an odd book, A bio of a labor guy who tilted against windmills, suffered lots of dissapointments but made a significant contribution. Books like this are often poorly written tributes or scholarly snores. Leopold is a good writer. Mazzocchi was born and raised in Besonhurst, an Italian kid who did not graduate from Hign School, fought in the battle of the Bulge, became a union gadfly. He befriended Karen Silkwood and got her connected up with a New York times reporter before she was run off the road and killed going to a meeting with the reporter. Months later, Mazzocchi was also involved in a suspicious one car accident. Mazzocchi was one the impetus' for OSHA and came to believe that corporate america was poisoning its workers. He also was a champion of a Labor party, having concluded that the GOP and demos were teo whores working the same side of the street. Mazzocchi led a chaotic, exuberant life and it is good to know that guys like Tony still exist in this world.
January 6, 2008
Really great book for those who are members of a union or for those who are supporters of the labor movement. It really highlights why a desperate shot in the arm is needed to make the labor movement jump like a live wire once again and fulfill the best that Mazzocchi had intended for working people everywhere. Even though he passed in 2002 and I had not heard of him until now. I myself felt tremendous sadness when I read about his passing from pancreatic cancer. It's as if I had known him for quite some time. He was a visionary and one of the first to bridge the gap between labor and the environmental movement. He fought for worker safety and took on the nuclear and oil industires. He helped usher in OSHA. We need people like this to step forward once again.
January 11, 2008
les leopold will be at red hill on january 14th at 7pm
In The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor, author and labor expert Les Leopold recounts the life of the late Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union leader Tony Mazzocchi. Mazzocchi's struggle to address the unconscionable toxic exposure of tens of thousands of workers led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and included work alongside nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood.
In The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor, author and labor expert Les Leopold recounts the life of the late Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union leader Tony Mazzocchi. Mazzocchi's struggle to address the unconscionable toxic exposure of tens of thousands of workers led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and included work alongside nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood.
June 29, 2008
Effective, colorful bio of labor leader Tony Mazzochi. An analysis of current labor issues would have been welcome tho. The book ends with a rah rah for Mazzochi's lively combination of rank-and-file unionism and coalition-building with non-labor allies. However, there's nothing deeper about today, which is a missed opportunity to learn the author's views on the contemporary issues in the context of Mazzochi's life work.
January 9, 2008
I'm back in love with labor and feeling like I am a worthless lump of non-contributing, over-consuming, self-absorbed silly putty. This book is huge, but worth the effort if you're at ALL interested in labor, environmental issues, occupational health and safety, politics, and (most especially) the intersection of all of the above. Mazocchi for president. Wait - he's dead. damn.
June 25, 2008
Wish I had known this guy. There is a clarity and focus to his labor organizing that is rare and wonderful although he appears to have been an impossible human being in other respects. Balanced seeming presentation of a modern hero.
December 22, 2010
It's mind blowing to read about someone like Tony Mazzocchi. He was a pioneer for health and safety along with being a true fighter for what is right.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews