(Photo by Jess Mancini) Gary Cochran of Beavertown holds a photograph of a September 1998 rally in Marietta for striking workers who had organized under the United Steelworkers of America at Magnetic Specialties Inc. From left, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, United Mineworkers President Cecil Roberts and Cochran, who was the steelworkers staff representative. Jackson, a noted civil rights leader, died Tuesday morning.

The late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presence helped settle a labor dispute nearly 30 years ago in Washington County, a man with the union said on Tuesday.

Jackson, who died Tuesday morning, came to Marietta in September 1998 on behalf of the United Steelworkers of America and the employees at Magnetic Specialties Inc. who had recently organized at the plant. The strike for recognition started more than a year earlier and was settled three months after the rally where Jackson and other union officials encouraged the crowd.

“I’ll tell you what I think. I think he put us over the finish line,” Gary Cochran of Beavertown, who was the staff representative for the steelworkers at the plant, said. The strike was to get a contract approved, he said.

“He said to me we were going to win this struggle because God is on our side,” Cochran said. “And three months later we did win it.”

The stop in Marietta coincided with Jackson’s “Close the Gaps, Leave No One Behind” tour that included a march in Nelsonville. The rally was held at Wood and Gilman streets on the West Side and was attended by more than 500 people.

Jackson arrived by bus and was accompanied by Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America. The tour was to draw attention to conditions in Appalachia, a region that was falling behind in a time of economic growth in the rest of the country, Jackson told the crowd.

“We are going to change the America agenda,” Jackson said at the Sept. 20 rally.

The political and civil rights leader had a genuine concern with the plight of the worker, Cochran said. Jackson’s concern was evident in his speech and relations with the employees and the audience, Cochran said.

“You had to be there. He really made you feel like he really cared,” Cochran said. “He could do that.”

Jackson even stopped the bus while it was leaving Marietta to speak to and sign autographs with the crowd that followed him to the bus, Cochran said.

Cochran, 85, was among the speakers at the 1998 rally and was on stage with Jackson and Roberts.

“I told Jesse that we were all white workers,” Cochran said. “He said ‘It doesn’t matter. They’re my kind of people.”

Washington County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Willa O’Neill said she met Jackson when he appeared at the strike in 1998. Although she can’t recall the exact date of the second occasion, she listened to him speak when he visited Hocking College.

“I hated to hear of his death this morning,” said O’Neill. “I think he was very impactful in the civil rights and the labor movements and he’s someone I had a great deal of respect for.”

She said she was inspired by Jackson and had voted for him when he ran in the democratic primaries.