MORE THAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35
What do you challenge? They needed to have all this informa-
tion when sitting at the negotiating table.”
Carry on a tradition
After 24 years as the PBA Collective Bargaining Coordinator
and about to turn 75, George says it’s time to bring in some new
blood, somebody with new ideas to keep the spreadsheets alive,
address some of the soft spots and shake things up. He has al-
ways advocated that creative energy is critical to maximizing
bargaining
ef-
forts, and very few
people have had
more energy than
George.
Freeman comes
close.
When
George
decided
to retire and the
PBA decided to
offer the position
to Freeman, Ko-
var suggested he
spend some time
tailing George to
see if he could
keep up. O’Brien
At the end of the June state meeting, members gave
had already seen
George a standing ovation recognizing that, as Cernek
enough to know.
says, “He has an endless wealth of knowledge when it
“Sometimes,
comes to the way the PBA does business.”
when you leave
a job, you worry
36
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■ JULY 2018
about what they are going to do,” George continues. “I don’t
have that worry. I know Mike Freeman will carry on a tradition
established two decades ago.”
George has always been all about the people. He says his col-
lective efforts have succeeded because of leaders like Wieners,
Kovar, Cernek and Freeman. Because of every member who has
worked on the collective bargaining committee. Because of the
staff at the PBA office, especially accountant Mary Ann Drost,
who has put so much into inputting data into the spreadsheets.
And because of Dorothy, whom George says should get an
honorary badge for all the time he was out on the road assisting
Locals. Little did any of the town managers know how much of
Dorothy was sitting across the table when they faced George. “If
they saw her at the table, the other side better be prepared,” he
extols. “She would knock them for a loop.”
Retirement will include being active with Local 600, going
to Mass every day and getting to the gym to “get my body back
in shape.” George submits that he might go back to school and
continue his voracious reading to quench his addictive thirst for
knowledge.
He’s not getting misty over moving on, like he did at the June
26 PBA state meeting at Caesars in Atlantic City when the mem-
bers rose to give him a prolonged standing ovation. This was yet
another confirmation of how much George O’Brien has meant
to the PBA, how much he has done to improve the lives of so
many members and their ability to provide for their families. Af-
ter 50 years of service to the PBA and to law enforcement, the id-
iom that comes to mind to best measure what he has achieved
would be this:
There will never be another Michael Jordan, and there will
never be another George O’Brien.