Mary Boresz Pike

Our union is heartbroken to announce the passing of Mary Boresz Pike: human rights lawyer, HTC union organizer, and kindness incarnate.

Mary will be remembered for taking on formidable opponents – from the U.S. government during her time as a prominent human rights lawyer, to management during her time as an HTC union organizer – with fortitude. Mary, who was half Finnish, is described well by the Finnish concept of sisu, which roughly translates to strength of will, mental fortitude, and extraordinary determination in the face of adversity.

Mary Boresz Pike: Human Rights Lawyer

Before coming to HTC, Mary took on cases involving human rights and civil liberties issues. In particular, she was known for defending the rights of asylum seekers and political dissidents in the courtroom. These cases were often an uphill battle, in a political climate and court that started to become more and more hostile to the interests of ordinary people. But Mary was not deterred. She believed deeply that her clients deserved their day in court, and she shouldered the heavy responsibility of making this happen.

In a case that held the world’s attention, Mary fought in the U.S. courts for 8 and ½ years to prevent Irish Republican Joe Doherty from being deported to the North of Ireland. In 1983, the British government requested that Doherty be extradited for the killing of an undercover British officer during the Troubles – a thirty-year conflict between mostly Protestant Unionists who wanted to remain a part of Britain and mostly-Catholic Republicans who wanted to unite all of Ireland. The stakes were high; had Doherty been extradited immediately, he would have very likely faced execution. Mary fought Doherty’s extradition all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, in 1992, the Court ruled against Doherty, voting 5 to 3 to deport him.

Mary’s work undoubtedly saved his life. In the years that Mary kept his legal battle going in the United States, times had changed and Doherty had captured the support of many Americans. Under this public pressure, the U.K. sentenced Doherty to prison (not death) and he served six years before being released. Mary similarly fought for nine years to spare two young, politically active Sikhs from being returned to India. As in the Doherty case, had they been returned sooner, they, too, would clearly have faced non judicial execution. As it happens all three men are free and leading productive lives today.

Mary Boresz Pike: Union Organizer & Assistant to the Local 6 President

In 1999, our union received a job application from Mary. Surprisingly, Mary wasn’t applying to work on our legal team — she was applying to be a union organizer.

When then-General Organizer and Local 6 President Jim Donovan asked Mary during her interview why she was making such a major change, Mary spoke about the tremendous shift in our legal system over her thirty-year career. When Mary had graduated from Georgetown law school, it was the era of the Warren Court – considered the most liberal Supreme Court in U.S. history. It was a time, she explained, when there were judges who were willing to deliver justice to disadvantaged, ordinary people. But that had been changing. By the time Mary came to our union, it was nearly impossible for the underdog to win in the U.S. court system. Mary started to feel that the court system was no longer a promising avenue for extracting justice for disadvantaged people. When Mary read about our union, she believed that she could be part of a team that could really accomplish social justice and transform people’s lives.

For the next 15 years, Mary graced our union with her determination, intelligence, and moral courage. At the union, she worked on notable organizing drives and became the Assistant to the Local 6 President, a role in which she helped countless members with grievances and mistreatment.

Jim Donovan recalled a time when he and Mary traveled to Pennsylvania, to help a local union organize workers at the Philadelphia Hyatt. During one house call, Mary and Jim were having trouble reaching a worker. So Mary made the decision to approach a stranger who had just pulled up to the apartment, and ask him.

"Mary said, 'Excuse me sir. My name is Mary Pike. I work for the hotel workers’ union and I’m trying to find Mr. So-and-so.'

'You wouldn’t be Mary Boresz Pike? Would you?' he said.

It turns out he was the Super, and he was an Irish Irishman. He knew Mary’s name just from reading about the Joe Doherty case. He walked us up to the man’s apartment, knocked on the door, introduced us, and stayed with us while the worker signed a union card.

I was quite impressed, driving back to Center City next to an Irish Republican Rockstar."

– JIM DONOVAN, Former General Organizer & Local 6 President

The connecting thread in all of Mary’s work was the pursuit of social justice. She felt her work for the union — in fact all work for all unions — was just that.

Mary’s Legacy

Mary had some number of personages among her friends: Gerry Adams, Martin McGuiness, Bernadette Devlin, Michael Farrell, Ramsey Clark, Steven MacDonald, and others. But this is who I want you to know more than them as you think about who Mary Pike was: secretaries, the night security man, and the man who polished the floors late at night all came to honor her at her retirement party.

If you had the good fortune to cross paths with Mary, you may know that advocating for others was her life’s work. If you knew Mary, then it’s likely that she helped you at some point, too, with her time, her teaching, her effort.

Mary is survived by her loving partner, Richard Rosenthal. Mary’s Estate made a donation to the union in her memory. The funds will be used to promote member activism and volunteerism to further our fight, which Mary believed in dearly.