from

DEPT. OF LABOR
JOE HILL IN THE HAMPTONS
by Adam Green

Any resort town’s list of unwelcome visitors would have to include
picketing workers and giant rodents. These days, East Hampton has
both. Last month, aggrieved members of the Writers Guild of America
East set up a picket line outside Wainscott Studios, a
television-production facility, where “It’s a Big, Big World,” a new
PBS children’s show with a non-guild writing staff, is shooting.
They brought with them a familiar labor mascot, a fifteen-foot-tall
inflatable rat, on loan from the Musicians Local 802....

On the picket line, the strikers were joined by Budd Schulberg, the
ninety-one-year-old screenwriter and author, who had driven from
Westhampton to be there. Schulberg is best known for his
Oscar-winning 1954 screenplay for “On the Waterfront"....

Another surprise visitor was Timothy Lynch, the president of the
Teamsters Local 1205. “Persons in the literary field—too often,
other workers don’t see them as truly being of labor,” Lynch told
the writers. “But I want you to know that the people who drive the
trucks feel a tremendous solidarity with you courageous folks. We’re
all in this together.” With a little encouragement, Lynch picked up
the bullhorn and, in a clear tenor, sang “Which Side Are You On?”
and “Joe Hill.” After a silence, Schulberg, whose eyes had become
moist, said, “That was the most beautiful rendition of ‘Joe Hill’
I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, thank you,” Lynch said. “He’s here. He’s here. He didn’t die
in vain, and you’re fighting the good fight.”

Excerpt from JOE HILL IN THE HAMPTONS by Adam Green
9/26/05 issue of The New Yorker