Bill Onasch
The KC Labor webmaster, pictured here with site safety and health editor Mary Erio, and the Erio family cats, at the home they share in the Hyde Park district of Kansas City.
The webmaster of the
kclabor.org website is a paid-up member of UAW Local 1981—the National Writers
Union. During the 70-80s, while employed at Litton Microwave’s Minneapolis
operations, he was elected to various positions in UE Local 1139, including Shop
Chairman and Local President. In 1980 he took a union leave from the plant to
work on a successful UE organizing drive at a Litton runaway plant in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. When Litton began shutting down its four Minneapolis plants
Onasch was selected to be a worker representative in a Dislocated Worker Project
administered by Minneapolis Community College—where he became a member of the
Minneapolis Education Association. Returning to his home town of Kansas City in
1989, he soon began a 14-year stint as a Metro bus driver. During that time he
published a rank and file newsletter, Transit Truth, chaired a union
Community Outreach Committee that organized public protests against cuts in
transit service, helped organize a privatized spin-off at Johnson County
Transit, and served a term as Vice-President of ATU Local 1287. He has also been
involved in US Labor Against the War and the Labor Party since those
organizations were launched.