Description
Matthew “Matt” Taylor grew up in La Jara New Mexico. In the early 1970s, Taylor started an apprenticeship with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW Local 611 . In 1973, Taylor was injured on the job and became paralyzed. Taylor noted the support of his Union brothers as he recovered. It was during this time that NM State Federation of Labor President Neal Gonzales lined him up with a job working for the national AFL-CIO as a bilingual Union Organizer in the Western US region. Going to work at the Four Corners power plant in San Juan NM, Taylor finished his IBEW apprenticeship. Taylor credits his participation in classes at the Rocky Mountain Labor School where he met his mentor Gracie Carroll as an inspiration for his Union organizing career with the AFL-CIO as well as his commitment to the Labor movement. His first campaign was the 1977 Coors Plant in Golden CO strike of the Brewery Workers’ Union. This boycott of Coors paralleled with the United Farmworkers’ UFW national grape boycott. Taylor also worked with Cesar Chavez and the UFW. Additional Labor organizing efforts included: 1980s American Federation of Teachers and NEA agreement, the NM 1199 organizing campaign at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe NM, the 1980 PATCO strike, the CA Machinists (IAM) in the 2000s in Compton at the American Racing Wheel factory. Taylor spent time in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Having participated in many major Labor struggles, Taylor sees his life as a Union man in solidarity with Union workers in struggle for a better world.
Labor Involvement
Member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW Local 611, Western Region Bilingual Organizer/Field Representative AFL CIO, member of the AFL CIO Field Representatives Federation, Central Labor Councils.
Publication Date
4-12-2024
Keywords
IBEW Local 611, AFL CIO, Rocky Mountain Labor School, Gracie Carroll, Mine Mill and Smelter Workers, Steelworkers, Ludlow CO, John Lawson – organizer of striking miners at Ludlow), Coors Brewery, Dave Sickler UFW organizer, Cesar Chavez, Delma Delora (NM 1199), Morty Simon, Al Shanker AFT, Elmer Jackson AFT NM, PATCO, Teodoro Lopez in El Paso.
Disciplines
Labor History
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Pinkey, Diane and Matthew Taylor. "Matthew ”Matt” Taylor WPHNM Oral History Video Interview." (2024). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wphnm/76
