Agnes Moran, activist for unions, justice

WHEN AGNES White arrived in Philadelphia in 1955 from her native Glasgow, Scotland, she lived at Front Street and Allegheny Avenue.

There was a bank on the corner and Agnes decided that she would take out a loan to establish her credit in her adopted country.

A single woman applying for a loan!

Perish the thought!

But you didn't say no to Aggie White when she had made up her mind to accomplish something. After making her feelings known to the manager, in no uncertain terms, she got her loan.

You might say that that was the beginning of a lifetime of activism and fierce determination to fight injustice wherever it reared its head.

Aggie, as she was known to family and friends, married Jim Moran, a longtime labor activist, in 1961. They shared many battles together over the years to protect the rights of workers.

She died Aug. 2 after a long illness. She was 75 and lived in Northeast Philadelphia.

Aggie and Jim were longtime members of Philaposh, the acronym for Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety & Health, the nonprofit organization of 150 unions promoting job safety and health. Jim Moran was a founder and is director emeritus of Philaposh.

"Philaposh was misnamed," said state Rep. Mark B. Cohen, a longtime friend. "It could have been, with justice, named 'Moranposh: the Moran Project on Occupational Safety and Health.'

"It was founded and run, for the vast majority of its existence, dating back to the 1970s, by Jim Moran. And Jim wasn't the only Moran to devote a good chunk of his life to the health and safety of workers. There was the giant contribution made by Agnes as well."

Aggie, who became a U.S. citizen in 1976, spent a lot of time on picket lines and fighting for a variety of causes. She marched against the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.

When the Ku Klux Klan came to Philadelphia for a rally at Independence Hall several years ago, Aggie and Jim organized a protest rally across the street. They also fought the Klan in Bucks County.

When President Reagan fired 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981, the Morans held fundraising parties, brought in musicians, had hoagie and beer nights, and other events to help the jobless controllers.

As far as the Morans were concerned, the strike was about their primary concern, health and safety issues, one of them being the stress the controllers claimed they endured on the job.

The Morans were members of Local 10 of the Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom, advertising and business employees of the Daily News and Inquirer. Jim is a member of the executive board.

It was about 25 years ago when Jim told the Philaposh board that the staff should be unionized because it worked with unions on health and safety issues. The Guild leadership at the time offered to take them in.

Aggie got her first taste of dealing with employee problems when she worked for Technitrol, the Philadelphia-based electronics company. She organized a grievance committee that met with management and brought about improvements in working conditions.

Her first union membership was with the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2005. She was employed at the time by Progress Lighting, at I Street and Erie Avenue, where she was a shop steward and health-and-safety representative on the labor-management health and safety committee.

In the '70s, Aggie trained at the Walter and Mae Reuther Family Education Center, in Black Lake, Mich., a labor school of the United Auto Workers Union.

Aggie was a Democratic committeewoman in the 1st Division, 66th Ward.

She and her husband retired from Philaposh in 2005. But Aggie was still marching for justice. One of her recent causes was with "Grannies for Peace," demonstrating against the Army Experience Center, at the Franklin Mills Mall.

Mark Cohen recalled that he last saw Aggie at a United Steelworker rally against the shipping of jobs from the U.S. to Mexico.

"Agnes will always be remembered for her warmth, responsiveness and determination to help anyone who needed help learn what their federal, state and local rights were," Cohen wrote on his blog.

He wrote that Aggie's was a "full-throated advocacy for labor at all times, and a mixture of steady responsiveness to individual and union concerns, coupled with a generous vision of the public interest and the will to try to sell it."

He wrote that the Morans "were always about the problems yet to be discovered, the questions yet to be answered, the battles yet to be conceived, fought and won."

Aggie loved kids and was something of a "granny" to the youngsters in her neighborhood. She was also a devoted fan of the Phillies and Eagles.

Besides her husband, she is survived by a son, James Moran Jr.; a daughter, Audrey Daniel; two brothers, Robert and Gerald White; two sisters, Betty Johnston and Chris Wilkie; six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Services: Memorial service noon Sept. 18 at the Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Road.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Philaposh, 3001 Walnut St., Philadelphia 19104.