Bob Kutz, president of the Blair-Bedford Central Labor Council, received a lifetime achievement award from the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO at the organization’s constitutional convention in Philadelphia. Courtesy photo

In the late 1980s, early in his continuing, 40-year tenure as president of the Blair-Bedford Central Labor Council, Bob Kutz reached out to the agent of singer-composer Kris Kristofferson, who was scheduled to perform at the grand opening of then-new Boyertown on the grounds of historic Lakemont Park.

Kutz explained to Kristofferson’s agent that Kutz’s unionists were planning to picket the grand opening because Boyertown’s owner had declined to work with any union firms in the buildout of the newly conceived park.

That contact with Kristofferson led the entertainer to threaten cancellation of his show, unless Boyertown’s ownership came to the table — leading quickly to park management asking the unions what could be done — a query that led to the awarding of some remaining contracts to union firms and a victory that Kutz cited Wednesday after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO at the organization’s every-other-year constitutional convention in Philadelphia.

“I feel kinda humbled,” said Kutz in a phone interview from Philadelphia. “After doing this for 40 years, it’s nice to know someone appreciates it.”

Kutz may be the longest-serving labor council president in the country, according to AFL-CIO national President Liz Shuler, who expressed that thought in a conversation with Wednesday, Kutz said.

Kutz was nominated for the lifetime achievement award by Dave Carey, director of the Central Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, which covers counties in the southern half of the state between Cambria and Lancaster.

Kutz has been “a strong union advocate, a good union brother and a community service-driven person,” Carey said.

Kutz launched a program that helps union members deal with medical issues, helped organize the local version of an annual food drive for needy people in which letter-carriers pick up goods that residents leave on porches and stoops, and he reinvigorated Altoona’s Labor Day parade, which lapsed after World War II, according to Carey.

“I was proud and honored to nominate him,” Carey said. “He’s been a mentor to me and a friend.”

Turning the tables

Another highlight of Kutz’s career with the Labor Council also involved Boyer Candy.

It was at the end of 1999, and workers at the firm went on strike for better pay, according to Kutz.

Many of the council’s member unions contributed to help the strikers, he said.

They walked the picket line, held a Christmas party for children of the striking workers and provided a $100 dollar gift certificate for food to strikers’ families Kutz said.

Finally, the sheet metal workers union brought in a giant inflatable rat, Kutz said.

At the sight of the rat, the company’s owner “wasn’t a happy camper,” he said.

“But he came to the table to negotiate, and they settled the contract,” Kutz said. “I was proud of that.”

Over the years, the council has supported striking workers at Bell/Verizon and at Penelec and also the registered nurses at UPMC Altoona, he said.

Military background

Kutz, 75, was born and raised in Altoona.

He served in the Army, starting in 1971.

He was in an Army Scout-Ranger unit — distinct from the Rangers — that specialized in survival skills and wayfinding.

Following active duty, he spent time in the National Guard, with a unit headquartered at the Frankstown Armory.

He got an associate degree from Penn State Altoona in electronics, then a job at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh.

He then followed a suggestion from his father that he test for an apprenticeship in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

He did well, got accepted into an apprenticeship program and became an electrician.

He’s been in the IBEW 55 years — the first 30 on the road, the next 20 as a business agent for Local 5, based in Pittsburgh, with a territory that includes Altoona.

He retired as a business agent seven years ago.

Union through and through

Unionism in the U.S. is currently in a state of “duress,” largely due to the current administration, Kutz said.

Especially troublesome has been the firing, layoff or elimination of jobs for about 250,000 federal workers, he said.

But union numbers are growing overall, which makes him optimistic, he said.

He’s a fourth-generation unionist.

His father and five uncles were in unions, including groups connected with the railroad.

His paternal grandfather was a union representative for the PRR machinists, then worked for the Bureau of Mediation in the state Department of Labor and Industry, according to Kutz.

“I always had it in my family,” he said. “I’m very proud of that.”

His involvement in unions “comes honestly,” he added.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.