Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 | 7:30 a.m.
Claude "Blackie" Evans had no interest in joining a union when he moved to Nevada in 1953. He had taken a job with Titanium Metals at the BMI plant in Henderson and initially refused to pay union dues. He joined only when he sought a promotion.
From there, however, he quickly took leadership positions in the local steelworkers union, and went on to run the Nevada AFL-CIO for 21 years before retiring in 1999. Evans died Friday at the age of 71. Services are at 3 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 Eastern Ave.
Evans was regarded as a champion of the Nevada worker. State Archivist Guy Rocha called him one of the most significant labor leaders in post-World War II Nevada.
"Blackie had the stereotypical look of a union leader - tough and gruff," Rocha said. "He also had a certain pragmatism - a willingness to compromise when he needed to. He just wanted to get a bigger piece of pie for the workers, and in doing so he left his imprint on modern Nevada labor history."
Evans was the straight-shooting voice of labor for a generation, diligently striving to protect workers' rights. Despite Nevada's right-to-work laws , which favor employers, Evans was able to carve out better pay, benefits and work conditions that ultimately benefitted all Nevadans.
His biggest labor victory, he said, came in 1965, just a few years after he became president of the steelworkers local. He settled a 62-day strike at Titanium Metals, negotiating a then-unheard-of cost-of-living wage increase as well as a pension plan.
In the 1970s Evans was appointed state labor commissioner by Gov. Mike O'Callaghan before taking leadership of the state AFL-CIO.
Longtime friend and fellow steelworker Jake Madill said that after Evans was hired at Titanium Metals there were things at work he didn't think were right and Evans worked to change those things.
"He cared about people," Madill said. "He wanted to make things better."
He did, and all Nevadans should be grateful that Blackie Evans left such a legacy.
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