UNSUNG HERO
Al Meyerhoff
1948 – 2009

Who is Al Meyerhoff and why does he appear as a Hero (albeit an unsung one) on the Eppley Files? Perhaps you expected the HERO to be President Barack Obama or Chesley Sullenberger , the pilot who took off last week from LaGuardia Airport . A few minutes later when both engines stalled after hitting a flock of birds, Sullenberger made a u-turn and landed the jet in the Hudson River in a maneuver that saved 155 lives. Reporters called the story “the Miracle on the Hudson.” Indeed it was.

Truly both men qualify as heroes, so I could have posted either one as HERO. While I was trying to decide, I read a headline on the obituary page of the New York Times: “Al Meyerhoff, Legal Voice for the Poor, Dies at 61.” Those words really got my attention. I reasoned that millions of people would hail Obama and Sullenberger as heroes, but not many would hail Meyerhoff as a hero unless they read his obituary.

According to that NYT obituary written by Steven Greenhouse, Meyerhoff as a young student was often bullied. Consequently, he developed an intense empathy for victims of companies and individuals who abused their power. So when he graduated from Cornell law school in 1972, writes Greenhouse, “he turned down a high paying corporate law job to take a $60-a-week position with California Rural Legal Assistance, which represented migrant workers and the rural poor.”

He took on the University of California for underwriting research on farm mechanization because it adversely affected farm workers and owners of small farms, and he pressured chemical industries “to adopt tougher standards on carcinogenic pesticides.”

According to Greenhouse, Meyerfoff later became “a leading labor, environmental and civil rights lawyer who brought a landmark case to stop sweatshop conditions for 30,000 workers on the Pacific island of Saipan,” which he called America’s “worst sweatshop.” He won a $20 million dollar settlement against the Gap, Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren and 20 other fashion companies who ordered their garments from Saipan factories that used slave labor.

“As part of the 20 million dollar settlement,” writes Greenhouse, “these apparel companies agreed to pay back wages, follow the code of workplace conduct and pay for an independent monitor to inspect the Saipan factories.”

It is refreshing to read that in these days of corporate and legal greed Mr. Meyerhoff waived his lawyerly fees. It’s nice to know that someone like Meyerhoff was doing his part to give lawyers a good name, which many of them deserve.

If anyone does not agree that Meyerhoff is a HERO, let that person read in the NYT obituary what Francis Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council, said of Mr. Meyerhoff: “He was a champion of the underserved. He fought long and hard to make the world a safer place for farm workers, for kids, for people working in factories and for people living in poverty who couldn’t represent themselves.”

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