"Politics was a part of my life from the day I was born," said Edith Lukasevich of Jim Thorpe. "My parents were very politically minded. In our dining room, there was a big picture, on top of the buffet of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When friends would c come into my house after school, they would ask, "Is that a picture of your father?" I was amazed that they didn't know that that was a picture of the president of the United States. 

"I hero-worshipped Eleanor Roosevelt-because of the things she got done," said Lukasevich . "She was way before her time. She was remarkable." 

In 1933, at the age of five, Lukasevich said, "I knocked on my first door. My mother was ready to kill me when she found out." 

She was at the Broadway home of Mr. Deterline, who worked for the National Bank. When he opened the door, she asked,  "Are you a Democrat or a Republican? I want you to vote for Roosevelt." 

"I wanted Roosevelt to be the next president," Lukasevich explained. " No one asked me to. Who was going to ask a five year old kid?" 

Four years later, now nine and living in upper Mauch Chunk, Lukasevich and her friends liked Harry Yungblodt, who was running for town council. "I got all the kids in the neighborhood to get pots and pans and spoons and we had a parade for this man. I can still see us walking down Center Ave and chanting, "Vote for Harry Yungblodt."

 

Edie Lukasevich was born on Jan. 21, 1927 in Lehighton to Joseph and Mary McLaughlin. Her father was a conductor on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The family moved to East Mauch Chunk when she was six weeks old. 

After graduating from Mauch Chunk Catholic High School in1945, Lukasevich was hired to do assembly work for Western Electric at its Franklin St. plant. 

"When I started working at Western Electric, every morning, when I went to work, there were people there handing out leaflets," she said. "I began to read the leaflets. The leaflets were about trying to organize to get a union into Western Electric, to hopefully make working conditions better." 

One day, she was asked to a union meeting. "I went to the union meeting and I was hooked." 

"We were a union-minded family," said Lukasevich. "I felt that I was born to help the underdog. I believe by having labor unions in industry, it was helping the person who could speak for themselves but needed an organization to help support them to get the things that they deserved as employees." 

Lukasevich was among the first employees transferred to the new Western Electric electronics plant Union Blvd. In Allentown when  it opened. 

Three unions sought to organize the workers: the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, International the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Communications Workers of America. Lukasevich supported the UERMWA. 

"I became one of those people standing outside," Lukasevich said. "I would get to work a good 35 minutes before we started working and hand out literature." 

Soon, she was asked to hand out registration cards inside the plant. Although it put her job in jeopardy, Lukasevich got people to sign up during breaks. "I would ask people if they would be interested in getting a union in for higher wages, better working conditions, get the time study people off our backs," she said. 

Over the following two years, she was pressured and offered a promotion to give up her union organizing. When that failed, Western Electric transferred her to an isolated part of the plant. 

When the election was three months away, the UERMWA sent Mollie Phillips, a union organizer from Pittsburgh to help with the Western Electric election campaign. 

Phillips became a new role model for Lukasevich. "I thought she was the most wonderful lady I had ever met. She was so good at what she did. She had all the diplomacy that was needed to lead people in the right direction." 

The UERMWA won the election but Western Electric refused to recognize the union. "We appealed unsuccessfully to the National Labor Relations Board," she said. "At that point, I knew I would have to get out of there before they found a way to get rid of me." 

She joined the UERMWA in Philadelphia and became a troubleshooter for the union at Philco in Philadelphia and RCA in Camden, N.J. "I acted like as mediator between the foreman and the employee," she explained. 

Her troubleshooting career ended in 1948 when she returned to Mauch Chunk and in 1950, married Victor  Lukasevitch a seven year Navy veteran and a Bethlehem Steel worker. 

In 1953, she became a Democratic Committeewoman in Upper Mauch Chunk. She became Democratic Chairperson for Jim Thorpe, Nesquehoning, Lansford, and Summit Hill but didn't continue because she was working in a Civil Service job. 

Lukasevich is a former Jim Thorpe Borough Councilwoman, where she served for eight years, and is currently the Chairperson of the Jim Thorpe Area Democratic Committee.

"I love politics. My hobby is politics. My life is politics," Lukasevich said. "I wish I was 50 years younger, I would have run for something that wasn't available to women when I was a young girl."