Keith Jons, a retired leader of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 and its predecessor unions, died Dec. 14 in Gresham at the age of 94. During a decade and a half of union service, Jons helped negotiate hundreds of contracts with meat processors and was active in several local labor organizations including this newspaper, which he served as a board member.
Born on Valentine’s Day 1931, in Englewood, Colorado, Keith Wayne Jons spent his early childhood on a ranch in Ashby, Nebraska, where he rode a horse to school. The family moved to Kennewick, Washington, in 1944. Starting at age 15 while still in high school, Jons worked part time at a slaughterhouse, at a meat market, and as a meat packer, all union jobs. He served in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1952 during the Korean War and after discharge continued to work union jobs as a meat packer and butcher, relocating to the Portland area in 1961 with his wife and children. In Portland he became a member of Meat Cutters Local 143, and then Butchers Local 656 in 1966, when he took the first of several jobs at meat packing plants in Portland.
He got active in his union, and in 1973 he was elected to a full-time officer position at Local 656. He continued working full-time for the union the next 14 years as it went through several mergers.
In 1980, Local 656 merged with two other locals to become UFCW Local 1001, and then in 1985, Local 1001 merged with four other locals to become Local 555.
He served many roles over his years of service to the union, including delegate to central labor councils throughout Oregon, trustee on union benefit funds, and member of the board of directors of the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Company, which publishes this newspaper. In 1976, he became president of Oregon Federation of Butchers and was recruited to take part in national meat packing negotiations for eight years. By the end of his union career, Jons was in charge of negotiating nearly 300 union contracts as director of collective bargaining for Local 555’s meat, seafood, and poultry division.
He retired in 1988 and lived on an 11-acre homestead near Damascus. Loved ones remember him as a hard-working patriot, a dedicated union member, and a family man who had a sense of humor, a love of gardening and a passion for vintage automobiles.
He is survived by Marjorie Jons (née Cochran), his wife of 72 years; children Cheri Rice (a retired longtime Labor Press office manager), Kristi Richards (a retired former Machinists District 24 office worker and spouse of retired former OPEIU Local 11 business manager Keith Richards), and Keith Jons, Jr.; six grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
