UFCW member at Paducah union-owned retiree apartments earns NAACP award
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
UFCW Local 227 member Dava K. Dillon, activities director at the union-built and owned Jackson House/W.B. Sanders Retirement Center in Paducah, was among 25 local women honored at the annual Rosa Parks Power of One dinner co-sponsored by the Paducah-McCracken County NAACP branch and Broadway United Methodist Church.
Local 227 represents hourly workers at the two apartment buildings.
"The union runs through her family," said Jeff Wiggins, Kentucky State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and a member of the Jackson House/Sanders Center Board of Directors.
Dillon's husband, Randy, is a retiree a member of Paducah Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184. Benny Heady, local NAACP first vice president and also a Local 184 retiree, handed Dillon the award. "I was very humbled and honored to be thought of in this way," she said.
She's proud to be a union member. "It's great that the union keeps our wages up and it's a great safety net for job security."
Dillon said that the union always kept her spouse "working and protected his rights. It has provided good insurance and a good wage. The union also tried its best to keep him safe on the job."
The Jackson House and Sanders Center are Paducah landmarks. At 19 stories, the Jackson House is the city's tallest building.
The two retirement homes are across the street from each other. Their roots go back to 1971, when the West Kentucky Building and Construction Trades Council, the Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, teamed up to start a non-profit corporation to build the Jackson House for elderly and disable men and women, according to the Jackson House/Sanders Center website.
The first residents moved into the Jackson House in 1974. The Sanders Center opened in 1982.
The Rosa Parks dinner was held Saturday night at Broadway Methodist. The program is named for the late Rosa Parks. Her 1955 refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to rear of a segregated Montgomery, Ala., city bus sparked the successful Montgomery bus boycott by African Americans.
The boycott was a milestone in the modern American civil rights movement.
"Rosa remained seated, so Martin could march, so Barack could run, so that our children could fly," said the dinner program.
The Jackson House/Sanders Center Board of Directors is comprised of representatives of the three union organizations and the community at large. The three community members have strong union ties, too.
Carol Young is the widow of W.C. Young, a national labor and civil rights leader from Paducah. Young's cousin is former City Commissioner Robert Coleman, a longtime member of the National Association of Letter Carriers. His wife, Connie Coleman, is on the board.
The other board member is J.W. Cleary, Paducah NAACP president and a retired Steelworker.