Edward Ashton Gaskin Stuart
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Edward A. Gaskin
Born 1918, in Red Tank, Canal Zone, he was an educator and labor leader. He fought for retirement benefits; against the low wages and the racial discrimination of the black laborers of Panama and the West Indies in the Canal Zone. He took his struggle to the presidency of Panama and successfully included highly beneficial clauses (retirement benefit and equal pay for equal work)in the Remon-Eisenhower Treaty of 1955.
He was also the principal of the La Boca School. In 1946 he founded the teachers union and affiliated it to the newly formed Local 713 of the Unión de Trabajadores Públicos de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, affiliated to the Congreso de Organizaciones Industriales (CIO) UTPA-CIO. The Local 713 was disbanded by the reactionary forces comprised of the North American gold roll employees under the Central Labor Union Metal Trades Council (CLU-MTC). He later founded Local 900 GCEOC/CIO. and became its first president.
His tenacity and pull-no-punch demeanor was highly admired by the silver roll employees. He was stripped of his educational post and demoted to janitorial duties and later offered a bartender job in the Officers Club. He did not enjoy any of the benefits he fought for, but in 1985 he received from president Ronald Reagan, in recognition of his struggle and his service to the Isthmian Community, the Silver Panama Canal Honorary Public Service Award.
He passed on August 10, 2001.
