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Greg and Kyung
Deblock |
Picture the 1970’s: jobs on the decline,
unrest in the steamfitters’ union about job security, dissatisfaction with
the leadership, and upheaval from Vietnam, Watergate, and the oil shocks.
Those were the tumultuous days in which Greg
Deblock cut his teeth on union politics. The retired business manager and
organizer from Steamfitters Local 235, which later became UA Local 290,
spends more time than he wants looking back these days. In November of 2006,
Greg was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung
linings caused by asbestos.
In the summer of 2006, Greg began having
shortness of breath. He went to his primary care physician who took a chest
x-ray that revealed a pleural effusion. His doctor referred him to a
specialist who performed two thoracenteses. On each occasion, over one liter
of fluid was removed. As the fluid returned and Greg continued to experience
shortness of breath, his doctor performed exploratory surgery to determine
the cause.
During the surgeries that took place at
Providence Medical Center in Portland, Oregon several tissue specimens were
removed. The diagnosis was malignant mesothelioma. His treating physicians
decided that his best hope was to begin with chemotherapy to shrink the
tumor, and follow with major surgical intervention.
In November 2006, Greg began his first
of six treatments with induction chemotherapy consisting of Alimta and
Cisplatin. On January 8, 2007, Greg had another CT scan that showed
minimum regress, despite his induction chemotherapy treatments. His primary
care physician and surgeon described surgical options including
extrapleural
pnuemonectomy (EPP) to remove the encased left lung.
He struggled to find specialized care in
Portland. Despite the area’s status as a hotspot for mesothelioma due to its
historic shipbuilding and paper mill industries, the closest treatment
centers with doctors who specialize in mesothelioma are in Seattle and Los
Angeles.
In order to learn more about treating his medical condition,
Greg traveled to Los Angeles to consult with Dr.
Robert Cameron, a mesothelioma surgical expert at UCLA. “I wouldn’t even
know about Dr. Cameron if my lawyer, Roger Worthington, hadn’t introduced
me. It’s too bad the local doctors haven’t responded to the asbestos
epidemic here in Oregon.”
Dr. Cameron, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at
UCLA, is also the science advisor for the Punch Worthington Research
Laboratory, which is investigating ways to reduce risk, diagnose and treat
occupational diseases, such as mesothelioma. The PWR lab is named after
Punch Worthington, Ph.D, a long time union organizer and asbestos
investigator from Salem, Oregon. For more information, see
www.phlbi.org .
On February 9, Greg met with Dr. Cameron who
after initial examination discussed with Greg the
pleurectomy with decortication surgery which would save the underlying lung,
followed by radiation and maintenance therapy with interferon. Greg was
interested in the P/D but eventually chose to undergo the EPP which was
performed on April 27, 2007 in Portland. Close to his home.
"Helping people"
Greg began as a dispatcher with
steamfitters Local 235 in 1976. His popularity led him to be elected as
financial secretary/treasurer in 1977. Greg became interim business
manager when Matt Walters unexpectedly died, and then became business
manager at the next full election in 1980. Unemployment was high and the
union was in debt, but Greg was able to bring it into the black.
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Greg with some of his
catch from his boat the ‘Bar Hopper’ 1986 |
His best memories about the job? “Helping
people,” he says without hesitation. “You could use your position to resolve
disputes, negotiate on behalf of the membership, fight for higher wages—we
negotiated the highest percentage wage increase we’d ever had. I’d go talk
to other party regarding problems with the work site, or maybe a worker had
a personal problem and needed help, and I’d work it out with the other
party. Helping our members was at the top of my priority list and it gave me
the most satisfaction. I have sat on numerous boards and commissions and
used those positions to the benefit of our members and organized labor as a
whole.”
According to Mike Fahey, former Executive
Secretary of Metal Trades Council of Portland and the Vicinity, “Greg was
always respected by the people he represented and the employers he
negotiated with. He was fair. He had integrity and was greatly liked. He was
a welcome addition to any contract negotiations, and respected by the
membership because he never forgot where he came from. Greg Deblock was a
man who remembered what it was like to carry a lunch bucket and punch a time
clock.”
Times, however, have changed. “The biggest
change is skill development. Steamfitters today have more skills. While the
job of steamfitter continues to involve the big pipe fitting type of work,
the methods of doing so have also changed. We have evolved into the high
tech area of manufacturing., which requires added skills. We have been able
to pass these skills on to our members through our state of the art training
center, thus making the Portland area one of the premier high tech areas in
the world that possesses the skills necessary for high tech manufacturing.
Along with these skill developments are the management of those skills. So
you see the times have really changed.
“This area is saturated with high tech;
Intel, IBM, Xerox, and many others, and the work is more technical than it
used to be. You deal with different kinds of welding, high orbital welding
instead of plain arc welding. Pipe systems are also designed differently
because of the electronics involved. Now valve systems are all high tech,
electronic, and automatic, and often as not controlled from remote locations
or via satellite.
“For labor the biggest change is the actual
amount of physical labor. Nowadays a steamfitter’s got to have a license to
work on boiler high pressure piping and vessels, licenses for high tech
orbital welding, low voltage licenses, and others as well.
“Labor relations have improved, too. We used
to be more adversarial, but we don’t see so many strikes because we’ve been
able to negotiate contracts that work around them for the benefit of
management and labor alike. I’d say there’s been a meeting of the minds: in
order to get his work done the employer has got to have skilled people.
He’ll go bust without them, it’s been proven time and time again. as we keep
adding the skills required by the industry, we become more valuable as a
work force and can command a relatively higher standard for ourselves and
our families.”
When asked about the future, Greg thinks
it’s pretty clear: “More high tech. More skills in electronics and
microprocessing. Less physical demands, more high tech skills if we want to
stay in the business, and any other skills the future may require.”
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POSTED OCTOBER 25, 2007 ***
Mr. Greg Deblock
passed away on October 29, 2007
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PATIENT PROFILES
