IAM Rail Division District 19 General Chairman Kenny Krause presented retired machinist and IAM Local 356 member Delmar Lavern Dickey with a 50-year membership award, a rare 70-year membership award, and a golden IAM Lifetime Membership Card.
Dickey started his apprenticeship with Missouri Pacific in 1954 and has been an IAM member ever since, this year marking his 70th year anniversary.
“He was like clockwork,” said Dickey’s daughter Alesia Lacina, thinking back on her father’s working days. “He woke up every day at 4:30 in the morning to beat the traffic, worked his 12 hours, and came home. He was raised as a farm kid and loved gardening when he was home.”
Retired machinist and fellow IAM Local 356 member Greg Lederer, who worked for BNSF overhauling parts with Dickey more than 60 years ago, joined Krause in presenting the awards.
Lederer works hard to track IAM retirees from the local and ensures that longtime members receive the recognition they deserve.
“Me and Lavern were good friends,” said Lederer, who started on the railroad in 1966. They worked for three years together. Lederer gifted Dickey a book of photos and they reminisced about their time on the railroad.
After working 36 years as a machinist, Dickey retired in 1990 but has remained an IAM union member.
“It was a great life,” 96-year-old Dickey said with a smile when asked about his union job.
“It’s truly an honor to have met Lavern and presented him with a lifetime IAM membership card. I always heard about the golden lifetime member card but never actually saw one until now,” said Krause, who came out of Local 356 himself. “Our union was born from the railroad; to be with these two early machinists and hear them share their appreciation of our work and our union is a real privilege.”
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