Rev. Addie Wyatt, 88, labor leader fought for rights of all

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/11607533-418/rev-addie-wyatt-88-labor-leader-fought-for-rights-of-all.html

Updated: March 30, 2012 2:34AM

In 1941, a teenage Addie Wyatt applied for a job as a typist in Chicago’s meat-packing industry.

Black people weren’t needed for office jobs, she was told. If she wanted work, she’d have to roll up her sleeves, and step onto the shop floor — slopping stew into cans.

The Rev. Wyatt took that job, setting her life’s course as a tireless advocate for the rights of women, African-Americans and anyone else she felt wasn’t getting a fair shake in life.

“She always believed in being fair and honest, and she stood for what was right,” said the Rev. Wyatt’s sole surviving sibling, Maude McKay, 74, of Glenwood. “She just couldn’t take injustice.”

The Rev. Wyatt — who would become the first female international vice president of a major American labor union — died Wednesday at Advocate Trinity Hospital, her family said. The Rev. Wyatt, 88, had been in poor health for several years, her sister said.