Personal Profiles and Interviews: Jim and Helen Fike

Jim and Helen Fike shared their remembrances of the Garrett County Road Workers’ Strike of 1970 in 2019.

Residents of Accident, Md., Jim is 83, Helen is 80. When the Fikes were first married, they built a basement for a new house. They lived in the basement for five years until the house was completed with the help of Jim’s brothers who were carpenters. Helen went into the woods to gather stone for the building.

“In 1962, I was working around the lake and went to my commissioner, Garlitz, who lived up on Frazee Ridge, to get hired on the roads. I started at $.75 an hour and was a member of the Garrett County Roads Employees’ Association [founded in 1956],” said Fike.

“We didn’t get any sick leave. To get a good, job you had to know the right person. I had to work a second job to make ends meet,” said Fike. In 1970, two of the commissioners didn’t think we needed anything to live on,” said Fike.

The day the strike started, said Helen, “The union said, ‘gather up some women’ [to support the men who were refusing to work until their union was recognized].“ Helen Fike went down to the county courthouse where the strikers’ wives held a sit-in asking commissioners to recognize the union. “They didn’t want to talk to the women. Period. We were there if the men needed us. This was no fun. It was a nerve-wracking thing.”

“The AFL-CIO were a great help,” said Helen. “They went to the commissioners and tried to get them to negotiate. What a hard time we had,” said Helen, remembering going to Uniontown to shop with food stamps.

“I think we got very little money [directly after the strike],” said Helen. “But we got recognized that we were a union. We never bothered anybody that didn’t ask to be bothered,” she said, recalling that some farmers didn’t support the strikers. Both the Fikes’ parents had small farms. “Some of the farmers thought they would have to pay more taxes [if the union won]. We don’t know why the farmers didn’t stand behind us.”

Jim’s father passed away at age 16, leaving his mother to rely on welfare. “I swore that I would never be on welfare,” he said.     Jim retired in 1999 after working on the Garrett County roads for 37 years, retiring as a foreman on the bridge crew. Garrett County’s road workers continue to excel on bridge construction other municipal roads department contract out.

The Fike’s son, Allen, is also a retired county roads foreman. “Before I retired, I had 30 days of vacation a year,” said Jim. The Fikes have accompanied Allen on trips to Alaska, Hawaii, Newfoundland and out West hunting. “We were raised thinking it was a big thing to go to Uniontown,” said Helen.

“Our family takes pride in what we do,” said Jim Fike. That included fighting for what he and his family needed back in 1970 and the seniority rights, wages and benefits and respect that came in successive contracts.