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Irene Hollman continues to work fulltime at age 90 as a cook in the cafeteria at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, long past the age when many people might have retired.
“I like to work,” Hollman says. “I can’t see staying home. What are you going to do? Clean the house?”
A member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Hollman started working at Abbott September 13, 1956. She has been a SEIU union steward at Abbott for close to 50 years.
“I like to help people and I want to do it right,” she says of her role as a union steward advocating for her co-workers. “Sometimes you get these supervisors and they don’t know what’s going on… I know what I’m talking about — they don’t like it but they have to put up with it.”
What’s the secret for Hollman’s longevity and long working life? “I never drank coffee and I never drank (alcohol) and I never smoked,” she replies. “I drink hot tea. I have Coke, my caffeine.” She adds, “I’m not a big meat-eater.”
“You’ve got to like your job and you’ve got to like people and you’ve got to have patience,” Hollman says. “Patience is a virtue. Sometimes you’d like to slap people down but you have to smile and say, ‘have a good day.’”
“I’ve always been one of those people that you’ve got to do your best and keep everybody happy,” she says.
Working as a cook means Hollman is on her feet all day, which is taxing. “I do have my one knee,” she notes, “I keep getting a shot every six months.”
Hollman lives in her own house in northeast Minneapolis and drives herself to work in south Minneapolis each day for a shift starting at 5:00 a.m.
“I need to be ready for serving at 6:30,” she says. “I do bacon and sausage. I do biscuits and scones, hashbrowns… I make hardboiled eggs, then I scramble eggs. I make breakfast sandwiches on croissants. I make omelettes to order. I serve until a quarter to 10, then I’m supposed to clean up and get lunch started.” She’s done with her shift by 1:00 p.m.
Hollman isn’t all work. “I go on vacation. I go to the casino. I like to play bingo.”
Hollman was born Irene Kenney in East Grand Forks in 1925 and moved to Minneapolis with her family as a toddler. She went to Minneapolis Vo-Tech after ninth grade for retail training but then became a cook.
Hollman raised three children while working at Abbott. Today they are ages 60, 65 and 70. She has 12 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and 15 great-great grandchildren.
Her husband, Harvey Hollman, whom she married in 1946, died in 1982.
Hollman started working at Abbott in 1956 when her youngest was age 3. She recalls, “I started with $1.27 an hour. We thought two and three cents an hour (in wage increases) was good. I liked when they came through with good contracts.”
“We were going to strike one time,” Hollman relates. “All of a sudden they settled. We were ready to strike.” Some co-workers had said, “I can’t afford to strike.” Hollman remembers responding, “we need to strike in order to let them know we mean business.”
“The more you hang together, the stronger you are,” Hollman maintains.
In addition to serving as a SEIU steward at Abbott, Hollman serves on the SEIU Healthcare Minnesota executive board. She has attended several SEIU national conventions. She noted: “if you went to the convention, you went to every meeting.”
Hollman is also a longtime delegate from SEIU Healthcare to the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. Delegates there gave her a standing ovation February 11 when informed of her recent 90th birthday.
Hollman proudly wears her purple SEIU union steward button at work. “A lot of companies want to get red of the union,” she said. “It’s bad. If they got rid of the union, the bosses could get rid of any of us at any time.”
“She’s probably the oldest union member in Minnesota still working and still working full-time,” says Jigme Ugen, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “She’s someone who’s seen it all,” he says. “She’s got some amazing stories. People look up to her with awe and respect.”
If you stop by the basement cafeteria at Abbott in the morning, “I’m out there in front by the grill,” Hollman says. She’ll take your order for breakfast and cook a made-to-order omelette. “I get people wanting omelettes all the time,” she says. “They say, ‘I want one of those famous omelettes because I’ve been told you make the best.’”
Hospital staff and SEIU co-workers celebrated Hollman’s 90th birthday February 3 and presented her with balloons, flowers, cards and a cake.
Days later, when interviewed in the cafeteria after her shift, a stream of people stopped by to offer Hollman belated birthday wishes.
Hollman is well-known at Abbott and has many longtime fans from her many years serving employees and hospital visitors. She jokes, “they always ask you, ‘how are you today?’ I say, ‘mean and sassy as ever.’”