Past and Present Membership Have Prepared LABORERS’ LOCAL 435 Local 435 for Its FutureCAL 43 Dear Brothers and Sisters: LO 5 ANNIVERSARY GALA - PROGRAM It is a great honor serving as business manager/secretary-treasurer of Laborers’ 1 0 0 th Local No. 435 during our 100-year anniversary celebration, which is a very special landmark occasion for our union. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2018 I wish to welcome our members, their spouses and all of our special Rochester Riverside Convention Center guests who took time out of their busy schedules to celebrate with Local 435. We appreciate those of you who sponsored this event, as you made this 123 East Main Street • Rochester, NY 14604 celebration possible. As you look through this publication, which chronicles our past 100 years, BENEDICTION we certainly must acknowledge the members who worked to make this union what it is today. Fighting some tough battles, not only for higher wages but also for better working PROCLAMATIONS conditions and benefits, those members laid the groundwork for the union that we now have. Because of them, we continue to enjoy the benefits we have today, so I thank them for their sacrifices and vision – 100 years strong! OPENING REMARKS Daniel J. Kuntz I would like to thank our present membership. These individuals carry forth the values, hard work Business Manager/Secretary Treasurer, Local 435 and dedication it takes to continue the mission of Local 435. We look to this group of members for great things, as they are our future! CLOSING REMARKS On behalfR of the officers, past and present, we also thank you for your continued support. I look William Steve forward to growth in solidarity, as we continue to work together to build a strong union for the future President, Local 435 members ofO Local 435. K Here’s to the nextC 100 years! R In Solidarity, H YO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ES Local 435 gratefully acknowledges our patrons for this evening and the following: TER, NEW NIK AND THE NICE GUYS THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF LOCAL 435: Daniel J. Kuntz, Business Manager/Secretary Treasurer America’s Premier Party Band Daniel J. Kuntz, Business Manager/Secretary Treasurer William Steve, President LIUNA Laborers’ Local No. 435, Rochester, New York UNION HISTORIES Robert Picardo, Vice President The following history was proudly produced by For their Time and Talents recording and producing our Carmen Serrett, Recording Secretary 100 Years of Memories and the Slideshow Presentation. Clint Dunn, Executive Board Yvonne Agosto Washburn, Auditor EAGLE GRAPHICS Ace Roundtree, Executive Board For their Time and Talents in helping to make this program so awesome. Michael Gay, Executive Board LOCAL 435 MEMBERS Alton Owens, Sergeant at Arms Head Historian: Calvin Jefferson For sharing your Photos and Memories with all of us. Timothy Giambra, Auditor LIUNA Local 435 and Union Histories give special thanks to the Eric Waters, Auditor following for their contributions to this book: Art Direction: Andy Taucher Local 435 retiree and former business manager Robert Brown Layout & Design: Steven Demanett Local 435 retirees Frank Coniglio, Butch Fox and Jim Sciortino A huge “Thank You” to our Office Staff: LIUNA International Office; Tonya Deedman, Records Department manager Officer Manager: Nicole Polito Rochester & Monroe County Central Library, Local History & Genealogy Division Organizer: Austin Kuntz The First 100 Years of Laborers’ Local No. 435 A Century of Commitment to th e Greater Rochester Community

“By the early 20th century, craft workers in the building industry had organized themselves into international craft unions and maintained these for years, but laborers had not. Many local unions of laborers and hod-carriers operated independently of one another in their own small areas. Some of these locals affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.), the Knights of Labor or local labor bodies. Near the turn of the century, three laborers’ unions tried to establish themselves nationally. Two of them never affiliated with the A.F.L. and did not achieve significant success. The A.F.L. played a key role in the formation of the other, the International Hod Carriers’ and Building Laborers’ Union of North American … (which) succeeded spectacularly. It has become the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) that we know today. “Most laborers’ unions survived only a short while. Laborers tended to organize in response to 1903 through 1917 IHC&BLU longtime International President a specific, immediate issue or crisis. These unions fell apart when these situations were resolved. Prelude to a Dominic D’Alessandro, was known as the “Italian Laborers’ Union.” However, the ethnic People usually moved between laborer jobs and other jobs outside the construction industry because Permanent Laborers’ Local of the occupation’s chronic insecurity. … monikers did not “formalize segregation because nothing in their charters, constitutions ounded on April 13, 1903, the “Laborers often organized their unions along racial or ethnic lines, as did workers in many or bylaws barred others from joining” a International Hod Carriers’ and Building industries. … Ethnicity and race greatly influenced where people lived, worked and socialized. The particular local, The Laborers’ Early Years notes. Laborers’ Union (IHC&BLU) – which bigotry and prejudice of employers, workers in other trades and laborers themselves was part of F would be renamed the Laborers’ International why laborers organized unions along ethnic and racial lines, but only part. These negative factors But in many cities, different ethnicities Union of North America (LIUNA) in 1965 – had a lot to do with what kinds of jobs people had. More positive aspects of race and ethnicity, belonged to separate laborers’ locals. At one permitted ethnic segregation among some of its such as shared community, background, language and culture also played roles. These elements point during the early 1900s, Rochester had locals “in some cases,” according to The Laborers’ of shared identity could sometimes generate the solidarity and continuity necessary for unions to four IHC&BLU locals, each of which was Early Years, and both “official and unofficial endure despite the instability of the industry. composed exclusively of one ethnicity: Local (ethnic) segregation” was very common during 15 was German, Local 60 was Polish, Local 65 “The most recent immigrants to the Americas often received the lowest wage and lowest status its first two decades. The union at the time was Italian and Local 84 was English. jobs, which included the heavy work of the laborer. When the Irish and Germans came, they took seemed to take a stronger stand against official these jobs. By the tum of the century, southern and eastern Europeans displaced them in the role racial segregation than ethnic segregation, the The LIUNA essay also points out that of laborer. Italian and Polish replaced English and German as the languages of those who carried essay states, and as such, it “separated African- communication problems heightened the hods and pushed wheelbarrows around the scaffoldings. … These independent unions would soon Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans need to create ethnically segregated locals. form the basis of the International Hod Carriers’ and Building Laborers’ Union.” and all the rest each into their own local.” “Often, laborers spoke different languages,” it simply states. From The Laborers’ Early Years, Laborers’ International Union of North America What’s more, many locals even specified a particular ethnicity in their name; for During that time, however, the laborers’ union example, Boston Local No. 209, the local of found much-needed stability when in 1908 L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Brother D’Alessandro took over the presidency LOCAL of the international body from Brother John 4 Breen, ending a “revolving door of leadership.” INTERNATIONAL UNION 3 President D’Alessandro would serve nearly EVOLVED INTO LIUNA 5 two decades in the position, helping to grow (Abridged from The Laborer: 100th Anniversary Edition, 2003) the union from 10,000 to more than 100,000 On March 12, 1903, A.F.L. President Samuel Gompers members. Importantly, during his term “the issued a convention call to local laborers’ unions urging union grew at an unprecedented rate and them to come together to establish “an international finally established itself as a significant force in union of Building Laborers … adopt a Constitution for the ranks of organized labor,” according to The the government of the organization and elect officers to 435administer its affairs.” In response, from April 13 to April Laborers’ Early Years. AL 17 that year, 25 delegates representing 23 local unions Additionally, economic Crecovery from the in North America convened in Washington, D.C., for the founding convention of an international union. 1907-1908 depressionO spurred a wave of strikes Delegates voted to affiliate with the A.F.L.; wrote the across the UnitedL States, helping to strengthen union’s Constitution; set a per-capita tax of 5-cents-per- the national labor movement. Then when the member per month; imposed a $10 charter fee for new United States entered World War I in 1917, unions; and adopted as the official seal a crossed hod, hoe the IHC&BLU “threw itself wholeheartedly and shovel, encircled by the union’s name: International Hod into the war effort,” during which time the Carriers and Building Laborers’ Union of North America. The new union faced rival organizations, ethnic division economy boomed, the labor market tightened and weak finances. At that time, two other organizations, and employers “excepted organized labor as a the International Laborers Unions of Dayton, Ohio, and the partner,” the essay recounts. Building Laborers International Protective Association of Lowell, Massachusetts, also claimed to Meanwhile, the union changed its name represent laborers. twice in 1912, becoming the International The young union eventually stabilized under Hod Carriers and Common Laborers the leadership of Italian immigrant Dominic R of America and then the International D’Alessandro, who took over its presidency in 1908. Before his death in 1926, Brother Hod Carriers, Building and Common D’Alessandro grew the Laborers Union from O Laborers of America. under 10,000 to over 100,000 members. During that time, in 1912 the young union As the laborers and other trade went through two name changes, becoming Laborers’ unions flourished with the demands of the International Hod Carriers and Common Union C Laborers of America in September and then the the wartime economy, the automobile International International Hod Carriers,’ Building and Common was becoming a more-popular form President Laborers’ of America in December. H of transportation, leading to increased Dominic With membership growing, the union built its D’Alessandro government spending on road construction own home in 1918, the same year during which E around the country. Rochester Local No. 435 was chartered. That first permanent headquarters was located in Quincy, K S K 1918 through 1919 Massachusetts. In 1940, the union moved its international T Building Up offices to Washington, D.C., where they still reside in 2018. R E R Then in 1965, the union completed a much-sought, Rochester’s Laborers’ Union symbolic name change, as many members resented the R O “common laborer” designation in the official title. After , N Y n that environment in Rochester in 1918, years of appeals, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. allowed the organization O EW two new “street and building laborers” to change its name to the Laborers’ International Union of Ilocals in the city officially replaced their North America (LIUNA). Y predecessorR locals in the Laborers of America union, all of which were defunct by that time. Rochester laborers application for a local to the International Laborers’ Union, submitted June 17, 1918. O C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW First was Laborers’ Local No. 370, known LOCAL as the “Italian Laborers’ Union,” which had 4 been operating for a few years already as an LOCAL 435 3 independent local. Its officers applied for and CHARTER OFFICERS 5 were granted a charter from the international Albert Roegner union on January 7, 1918, as a “street, sewer, President general excavating and building laborers local.” The local would continue to hold its meetings Otto Felgner in the Garden Hall on Clinton Avenue North Vice President in Rochester. 435Albert Bogatke L Recording Secretary Soon after, with trouble brewingA between the city’s laborers and their employingC contractors, Hermann Voss a group of “English-speaking”O laborers applied Financial Secretary to the Laborers ofL America union for a charter on June 17, which it was given on June 20, 1918, John Palleck as Local No. 435. Affiliated from the start with Corresponding Secretary the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.), the new local was initially led by Brother Albert Carl Schankin Treasurer Roegner, a former general secretary of Laborers’ Local No. 1405 of Rochester (one of those Henry Wandersee many short-lived, pre-IHC&BLU locals), who Sergeant at Arms would serve as Local 435’s first president. Henry Behnke With a membership of 46 street and building Guard laborers, the new local would hold its meetings R in Muenster Hall at 508 Joseph Avenue in Rochester on the first Tuesday of each month. the tools to be furnished to the men,” the With World War I raging in Europe and little O Democrat and Chronicle reported that day. new construction taking place in the city, practically all of the work in which they and “They claim that virtually all tools are now C all laborers in Rochester were involved at the supplied by the contractors except shovels and time was for munitions factories and “other that these could not be furnished, as it would H occupations necessary to the government,” mean a new shovel for every man every day,” according to an article in the June 17 Rochester the newspaper reported. “They refuse to do Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. more than live strictly up to the agreement in E force until it expires.” S But on the morning of the very day that K K Local 435 applied for its charter, the city’s The contractors also noted that while they T R laborers, led by the much larger Local 370 would not grant the tools or shelters, they R E and its roughly 1,500 members, publicly had “voluntarily” increased the wages of the R O threatened to go on strike unless their laborers to 40 cents per hour “at the opening of , N Y employers agreed to furnish them with their the present season in April,” according to the O EW tools and provide shelters in case of rain. The newspaper. contractors, however, claimed that their May Y 1, 1918,R agreement with the laborers, which Just two days later on June 19, 1918, did not expireO until the next year, “defined the laborers accepted a proposal from the Local 435 duplicate charter, re-issued January 31, 1936. C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW 1920 through 1923 Regardless, Local 370 would continue to LOCAL Demise of the function as an independent laborers’ local 4 throughout the next several years with a 35 ‘Italian Laborers’ Local’ membership of about 500 laborers. ochester’s dual International Hod The rapidly growing Local 435, headed by Carriers, Building and Common Business Agent John Bruce, and the Fiocca- RLaborers of America locals continued to led independent local would often square assert themselves into the 1920s. But by early off, particularly as employment conditions 1921, Local 370, which by then was being led suffered through the end of 1921 and into by President Vincent Fiocca, had left theL union 4 31922,5 during which time as many as 30,000 and was operating as an independentA local. men were unemployed in Rochester at times. C “There is conflict between the laborers in the To combat that situation, the International field,” the March 10, 1922, Democrat and on August 29, 1921O chartered Local 703 as an Chronicle even declared. Italian-speaking localL in Rochester. A brother Biachi was selected as business agent for the new local (which would ultimately not function for Laborers help construct the New York State Barge Canal through Rochester in 1918. very long). (From the Collection of the Rochester Public Library, Local History Division.) However, Fiocca was still using the union dues stamps and books to collect money from Rochester Street and Sewer Contractors, the wage scale after some contractors had randomly members of Local 370, “who are led to believe Mason Contractors Association and the Master increasing it on their own in order to procure that they are all right with our International,” Plumbers Association that gave the workers labor, causing turmoil in the workforce. In his Laborers International General Organizer practically all of the conditions for which they report, the commissioner stated that testimony Benjamin Schiro wrote in an October 28, 1921, were asking. In addition to keeping the wage “prove(d) conclusively that certain employers letter to International President D’Alessandro. R rate at 40 cents per hour, the new agreement competing with each other increased this wage None of those funds were being paid to the provided “proper shelters for the workmen to 45 cents an hour, with the usual results, union as a per-capita tax as required, according during storms and that the contractors furnish that of causing an uncertainty of employment, O to Brother Schiro. the laborers with all the tools required for their the workers changing from place to place work, including shovels,” the June 20 Democrat frequently, there being almost a complete Subsequently, President D’Alessandro C and Chronicle reported. turnover once every 30 days.” revoked Local 370’s charted on October 31. The next day, he wrote Rochester Laborers’ District However, the following week on June 26, the The following May, when that first contract Council Secretary John White, a member of laborers demanded that employers further pay expired, the laborers accepted a raise to H Local 435, to inform him that Local 370 was them overtime for work on Saturdays, delaying 50-cents per hour on May 1, 1919, pending officially no longer allied with the union. He the union’s ratification of the new contract. the signing of a new agreement with which E further encouraged Brother White to “take Ultimately, the overtime was not granted and they were seeking an hourly scale of 52-1/2 into your local or the other local union the K the Sunion conceded to signing the agreement. cents, or $4.20 for an eight-hour day.K (The city’s members of Local No. 370 by paying only per- T electrical, masonry and plumbers and steamfitters Later that year in October, the Rochester R capita tax.” R E unions had already agreed to new wages of $7 laborers – again led by the numerically R per day for an eight-hourO day beginning June 1, With Local 370 no longer affiliated with the superior Local 370 – won a decision by the , while the sheetY metal workers would receive the Laborers’ Union, the Central Trades and Labor U.S. Commissioner of Conciliation to set the O N largest pay increase of $1.28 to $6.08 per day.) EW Council of Rochester during its meeting on minimum rate of wages for common labor in Members of the contractors’ associations soon November 10 unseated the local “without a the city at 45 cents per hour, even though the Y after agreed to the laborers’ request. contraryR voice.” May 1 contract had set a 40-cent hourly wage for the laborers. The union had challenged the O Democrat and Chronicle headline, June 2, 1926 C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW But as work improved into the spring of that Contractors Association and the Rochester and Common Laborers of America. On year, contractors – who were “not LexpectedO CStreetA Contractors’L Association, effective April February 7, Brother Bruce himself even sent to negotiate agreements with the laborers,” 1, 1923. While 4 the laborers unions had been to International General Secretary-Treasurer LOCAL 435 UNION HALLS according to the newspaper – declared that without contracts 3from the employers since Achilles Persion a list of names of Local 370 OFFICES/MEETING PLACES they would “guarantee” a wage of 50 cents per 1920, the increase “was granted5 because of the members who were seeking membership, along “Muenster Hall” hour for street and sewer laborers and 55 cents upward trend in the cost of living during the with a note requesting that he “if possible 508 Joseph Avenue, Rochester per hour for building laborers. past year and in cognizance of the scale paid please grant these members their same number 1918 laborers in other cities,” the February 16, 1923, which they had, No. 370.” Into November, with the demands for all Democrat and Chronicle reported. 82 Exchange Street, Rochester workers citywide running 40 percent higher Those independent members on March 4, 1918 to 1925 than the previous year, there were orders in 1924 through 1926 1924, then sent a letter (which was written in4 35 L 42 Exchange Street, Rochester Rochester for an additional 300 laborers for Italian) to International PresidentA D’Alessandro Laborers Fight for Their Survival 1925 to 1928 road work “on jobs paying 50 cents an hour, formally requesting a charter,C which was a bunk in a workers’ dormitory and a charge ith work remaining strong into 1924 accompanied by the Ocharter fee. Carpenters’ Hall book at the company store.” and labor “peace” prevailing for L 113 North Fitzhugh Street, Rochester Later that month, an “amicable adjustment of nearly two years, in February that 1928 to November 1952 The following February 16, the city’s W the working conditions and wage scale between year members of the independent Local 370, 5,000 total union and non-union laborers 10,000 building mechanics and laborers in Laborers’ Hall now under the new leadership of President were granted a 10-cent raise to 60 cents Rochester and the employers,” as the March 20 509 North Goodman Street, Rochester Antonio Zappella, requested to be re-chartered per hour for street laborers and 65 cents per Democrat and Chronicle described it, provided November 1952 to August 1975 by the International Hod Carriers, Building hour for building laborers by the Mason the street and building laborers with an Local 435 “Labor Temple” additional 5 cents per hour to their wages. The 20 Fourth Street, Rochester newspaper also noted that of those tradesmen August 1975 to Current A crew of laborers at work on an unidentified residential street repaving job in Rochester involved in the amicable negotiations, the during the early 1930s. (From the Collection of the Rochester Municipal Archives.) (The laborers’ new hall was referred to as the “Labor laborers made up the “larger number” in the Temple” because it initially housed many other local unions, construction industry. including the bus drivers, lithographers, carpenters and R insurance agents.) Two years later in March 1926, the still- emerging laborers locals were receiving 63 cents O per hour for its street members and 70 cents per hour for its building members. Both classes special meeting at the Carpenters’ Hall on were seeking 5-cent-per-hour raises at the time, North Fitzhugh Street voted to go on strike the C but although relations between the union and following morning and picket all construction its contractors had been affable, the contractors jobs in the city. Brother Bruce, who by that H in late April refused to grant the increase to the time had become chairman of the Laborers’ building laborers. District Council, said in a May 20 newspaper E article that the laborers had the support of all Following another meeting with the other trades and predicted a “general walkout K S K contractors, during which they again rebuffed in the building industry” if the contractors T the laborers’ request for raises, the 800 combined attempted to use non-union labor. R E R building-class members of Local 435 and Local R O 370 voted on May 12 to strike in one week Although Laborers’ Union International , Y if their demands were not met. Among those Representative Benjamin Sherrill came to O NEW requests, in addition to raises the laborers were Rochester on May 22 to help direct and settle seeing “recognition of their union,” according the strike, the contractors would not relent. to the May 13, 1926, Democrat and Chronicle. Y R But the strike turned markedly violent On May O19, the laborers during another on June 1, 1926, when rioting broke out at C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW the construction site of a new garage for the in 1927. During the work, in June 1928 the LOCRochesterAL Gas and Electric Company at 174 laborers union did have to file a complaint Front Street, 4for which non-union laborers with City Council that charged its members LOCAL 435 were being used. “There3 was a free-for-all fight were working longer hours than the legal eight- in which bricks, pieces5 of concrete, shovels hour day and that they were paid less than the BUSINESS MANAGERS and other welding implements were used,” the prevailing Rochester scale. (Prior to 1920, no business agent is listed for Local 435. The Democrat and Chronicle reported the following office was converted to “business manager” in the late 1940s.) day. After order was finally restored, four men The following year in March 1929, the were arrested and about 20 others were injured, union was again compelled to defend its including one striking laborer, Brother William agreed-upon wage scale to the contractors’ association, with which the laborers still did4 35John Bruce Wilson, who was shot in the leg. L 1920 to 1937 not have a written contract. AsA such, Local Ultimately, even though the laborers pulled 435 charged that wages wereC being “cut in a back their requests for a raise and only sought number of instances”O by certain contractors recognition of their union, the locals called off from the 70-centsL per hour scale, the March Louis Genovese the strike on July 7 after having not secured 25 Democrat and Chronicle reported. 1937 to March 20, 1951 either of their demands. Laborers officials, (Brother Genovese passed away including Brother Bruce and Local 435 But soon after, the laborers were forced to face while in office.) President Harry Devlan, declared that the strike yet another threat with the Great Depression, was unsuccessful because the other Building the historic, national economic collapse ushered Trades Council of Rochester crafts did not fully in with the devastating “Black Tuesday” Wall support the laborers. Street stock-market crash of October 29, 1929. As the decade-long Depression would tighten Anthony “Tony” Castagnaro 1927 through 1930 its stranglehold on the local and national 1951 to 1983 Local No. 435 economies, Local 435 would subsequently face a litany of challenges over the ensuing 10 years. R Comes to The Forefront To help combat those current and future hen wage agreements for all of the issues, in October 1929 the International O building-trades crafts in Rochester Laborers Union merged Local 370 into Philip Olverd 1983 to 1986 Wexpired on April 1, 1928, the Local Local 435 to create a single local for all of 435 and all of the city’s laborers still did not Rochester’s laborers. C yet have a written agreement (nor did the city’s electrical workers, lathers and hoisting Soon after, in another effort to present a H engineers). Instead, that day the laborers strong, unified front against any and all current and future opposition and detriments, Local came to an “understanding” with contractors Robert Brown E “to continue work this year on the same basis 435 and the various other building-trades locals 1986 through March 2012 as last,” the April 2 Democrat and Chronicle in the city reorganized the Rochester Building K S reported, which included hourly wageK scales of Trades Council in January 1930. Among its T 70 cents for building laborers and 65 cents for first officers, Brother Bruce was named the R Council’s sergeant-at-arms. R E street laborers. R O However, Local 435 was often hounded Daniel J. Kuntz Among the many projects on which Local , April 1, 2012, to current Y during the 1930s even by some non-traditional N 435 members were working at the time was O EW sources of discord – including the threat of construction of the new Rochester Municipal Airport (which has since become the current communism.R In one particular example, Y Greater Rochester International Airport) just about 50 of the local’s members walked off south of the city on Scottsville Road beginning constructionO of the Our Lady of Good Counsel C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Parochial School on Brooks Avenue for a month Contractors Board asked the building trades in LOCbeginningAL in late May 1930 after contactor Rochester and throughout New York to accept Daniel Meagher 4 hired laborers from the Trade a 20-percent reduction in wages. Subsequently, TRAINING IS KEY Union League. The 3later was “said to be directed by August 1933, the union building laborers FOR LABORERS TO ENDURE by the Communist party5 of the United States were receiving 55 cents per hour, which Local 435 provides construction-industry training and linked with the Red International of Labor remained the scale into and throughout 1934 – through an apprenticeship program and continuing Unions, a world-wide labor organization with although Brother Bruce claimed in the March education for members in classes hosted at the local’s headquarters in Moscow,” the Democrat and 31, 1934, Rochester Labor Herald that “some Union Hall and at the Upstate New York Laborers’ Training Chronicle reported on June 23. contractors have ‘chiseled’ the rate to 40 cents.” Facility in Oswego, New York. In addition to preparing its new laborers for careers in the trade, the local also provides “This is not a fight between union labor and By that time, the Works Progress 4 35continuing-education programs for members who need L to maintain their certifications, develop new skills and stay the church,” Brother Bruce told the newspaper, Administration (W.P.A.), theA massive current with new trends and technologies. “but a fight against Communism.” He further employment program initiatedC by President asserted that the Trade Union League was Franklin D. Roosevelt’sO “New Deal” policies to “fighting organized labor at every opportunity” help combat the LGreat Depression by creating These Local 435 members took part in the first and that “labor lenders of Rochester feel that public-infrastructure projects, had set its rate at Line & Grade Class at the new Upstate New this is a direct challenge to the A.F.L. and, as 55 cents per hour for a 40-hour week on all York Laborers’ Training Facility in 1990. such, must be accepted and combatted in every W.P.A. projects in the city. legitimate manner.” One of those W.P.A. projects, in particular, 1931 through 1934 was another source of conflict in which Local Maintaining The 435 was involved during the summer of 1934 when on August 7 its members walked Fight in Trying Times off the construction job of the new John Marshall High School for a week to protest ith the Depression deepening and the contractor’s hiring non-union laborers. R the laborers still without a collective- The union workers returned to work after the Wbargaining agreement, allowing contractor, A. Friederichs & Sons, agreed to contractors to fix wage scales as they had been “recognize the laborers union and the right of O since 1918, by September 1931 conditions union officials to approach non-union workers In 1989, the Oswego training facility site was first for laborers in Rochester were “deplorable,” after working hours on the job,” according the purchased, funded and operated by locals 435, 186, 322 Brother Louis Genovese, chair of Local 435’s August 18 Labor Herald. and 214 of Oswego (which was merged with Local 433 of C organizing committee, proclaimed in the Syracuse in 2004 to form Local 633); the original purchase September 4 Democrat and Chronicle. By that After several “almost unbelievably lean price was $62,500. When the training center was officially H time, wages were being cut from 70 cents to 40 years,” as the October 13, 1934, Labor Herald opened in 1990, the first laborers to attend hazardous materials classes there were five members of Local 435. cents per hour and laborers were working 10- described them, construction of the high school E hour days while being paid for just eight hours. and many other W.P.A. projects in and around Rochester began to provide employment and K S The situation prompted Brother Genovese K some financial relief for the city’s union laborers However, later that year the union laborers to send out a petition on behalf of the local on T and other building tradesmen. Additional had to threaten to strike again after the local September 3 urging all non-unionR laborers to R E federally funded projects on which Local 435 and its contractors were unable to settle organize into Local 435. “We made the mistake R O members would also work into the second several on-going differences, including the of not uniting all building-trades workers, , Y half of the decade included the new Rundel employers’ refusal to bargain collectively on N and were unable to wage a successful fight O EW Memorial Library (now the Central Library of a new contract, after more than four months against organized builders and contractors,” Rochester and Monroe County) at Court Street the appeal explained. of negotiations. The union was seeking an Y and SouthR Avenue and a new bridge across the agreement calling for 80 cents per hour in But early the following year, the State Genesee River.O wages and the 30-hour workweek. C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW In that climate, a W.P.A. sewage disposal officers that was elected in June of that year as and papers of the local on August 16. Brother LOCjobA in TownL of Irondequoit, New York, was a they tried to wrestle control of the local way Bruce’s “organization” faction immediately prime example 4 of “what we have to contend from the sitting leadership. countered by obtaining an order from the New with,” Brother Bruce3 stated in the October 27, York State Supreme Court “requiring the group 1934, Labor Herald. The5 job’s contractor was Headed by Brother Bruce, whom the “rebels” … to show cause … why the documents should paying laborers only 50 cents per hour, while were attempting to oust as business agent, not be returned,” the Democrat and Chronicle it cost workers 30 cents a day in car fare to get the incumbent officers asserted that many reported on August 17. to and from the worksite – after an additional of the insurgent group were not members 2-1/2-mile walk. of the local, the July 20, 1935, Labor Herald In the meantime, a strike by Bruce’s faction reported. Soon after, a letter from the Laborers at the construction site of the Rundel Library After voting unanimously on November 8 to Union international office warning theL group 4 3was5 averted on August 19 when the contractor stop work on all construction projects in the seeking to take over the localA “that only agreed to recognize “only members of the city and county, the strike by the local’s more regularly elected officers Cwould be recognized” laborers’ international union,” the Labor Herald than 400 building laborers was averted after went unheeded, andO the “‘outs’ are continuing reported on August 24. a conference between union officials and the to function in aL dual capacity,” The Labor Mason Contractors Association on November Herald reported on July 27. Subsequently, As the fight over which of the two sets of 13. During the two-hour negotiating session, the international took over operation of Local officers had control of Local 435 continued, over which the Rev. John P. Roland of Buffalo, 435, placing it under the administration of on October 15, 1935, the Supreme Court head of the Regional Labor Board, presided, the International Organizer Schiro. denied a second request by the “old officers” to contractors’ representatives “agreed to go before vacate another records seizure, which the “new the Mason Contractors Association and urge The local was then warned that “international officers” had secured a second time after their that a committee be named to meet with the laws would have to be obeyed orders of the first seizure in August had been overturned by union negotiations committee, the Democrat officers carried out if they wished to retain their the court. As such, the local’s books and $1,007 and Chronicle reported on November 14. charter,” according to the newspaper. Those in funds were transferred to the office of the warnings also were ignored and, in fact, the country treasurer to be held until the dispute The two sides met on December 11, “new” officers called for another vote, which was resolved. R 1934, during which they negotiated a they won by an 82-to-21 margin, to verify their working agreement that called for “closed” earlier election victories. However, the “old In turn, the International Hod Carriers, O union shops for all members of the Mason regime” refused to abide by the vote, “charging Building and Common Laborers of America Contractors Association. the meeting was packed with non-members,” recalled Local 435’s charter and annulled it the newspaper reported. with the date January 31, 1936. It was then C 1935 into 1936 signed by International President Moreschi. Internal Strife After a July 25 deadline set by International President Joseph V. Moreschi for turning in It would not be until a year later that the H Tests Laborers’ Local “correct information” on the elections passed quarrel would seemingly come to an end when without a response from the local, Brother on February 13, 1937, the Supreme Court “The ‘outs’ are still trying to get in and the Schiro took over operation of the local. In mid- dismissed a lawsuit by the “insurgent” faction to E ‘ins’ are trying to stay in ….” August 1935, with the international office fully obtain the local’s funds and, instead, ordered the K S county treasurer to pay the funds to the “old” The Rochester Labor Herald, July 27,K 1935 supporting the incumbent officers, Brother T Schiro appointed Brother Bruce as Local 435’s officers who had been elected in January 1935. R Then on March 4, 1937, the “insurgent” group R E n the midst of battling for better working business agent. R conditions out Oin the field, a caustic elected to discontinue its two suits over control , conflictY within Local 435 between two In response, the “rival” faction, headed by of the local’s funds, furniture and records. O I Herbert W. Clyde, who claimed he was the N groups of members beginning in June 1935 EW (Some two years later, attorney William threatened to unravel the local’s progress. local’s legal business agent, and Orrin L. Stout, L. Clay, “colorful Rochester lawyer,” as the At odds were the local’s incumbent officers, who insisted he was the local’s president, Y R March 16, 1939, Democrat and Chronicle elected in January 1935, and another group of obtained a seizure order from a county judge and had theO county sheriff seize the books described him, on March 15 was suspended C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW from practicing law for six months for failing construction projects and explained the new … LOCtoA provideL proper services to the Local 435 regulation,” the July 6 Democrat and Chronicle “insurgent” faction4 of officers. In its decision, reported. “The wages of plumbers, carpenters, a court ruled that 3Clay “displayed a callous masons, electricians and others were also indifference to the entreaties5 of his clients reduced correspondingly, placing them all on for action in their behalf and to the duty he a scale well below the prevailing rate previously Democrat and Chronicle headline, February 18, 1937 owed them,” the newspaper reported. Former paid by W.P.A,” according to the newspaper. “rebel” President Stout had filed a complaint against his faction’s former attorney charging The local did not relent, however, in its Union officials feared that once the lower “professional misconduct” and that Clay had efforts against near-constant challenges to its wage scales were established, private contractors W.P.A. wage scale. Those were on full display 3would5 demand similar cuts and the entire accepted $200 from the group for service “of L 4 which he performed only a part,” according to in 1939 when the local demandedA that its wage level in Rochester would be lowered. roughly 100 W.P.A. workersC on a new St. The newspaper further noted that “vociferous the newspaper.) Paul Street sewer tunnelO job received wages protest against the longer hours” came from 1936 through 1940 equaling those paidL by private contractors on Brother Genovese. the Lexington Avenue tunnel, a project under Remaining Vigilant the Public Works Administration, another Workers would not return in full force in External Affairs New Deal program that was started in 1933. In on W.P.A. projects in the city until July 24, his protests, Brother Genovese, who had been when men were quickly assigned to sewer and hile dealing with its internal crisis and elected business agent in 1937, pointed out the pavement construction, “a field particularly the unrelenting Great Depression, hourly wage difference ranging from 10 to 20 hard hit by dismissal of workers for strike WLocal 435 and its 700-strong cents between the two relief-agency projects. absence and by mandatory 30-day furloughs membership on December 7, 1936, rejected an for those employed 18 months on W.P.A. offer from the Rochester Mason Contractors Local 435 and Brother Genovese in late projects,” the Democrat and Chronicle reported Association for a 7-1/2-cent-per-hour raise to June 1939 finally won their seven-month- that day. The 130-hour regulation, however, their 55-cent-per hour wage scale. The laborers long campaign for equalization of W.P.A. remained in place – while organized labor R were instead demanding an increase to 75 cents wages on the St. Paul Street tunnel with those continued to voice its objections to the law. per hour, along with union recognition and paid by contractors on the Lexington Avenue closed shops in the city. sewer tunnel. Meanwhile, Local 435, as did other A.F.L.- O affiliated locals throughout the country, had As negotiations continued to break down Just two weeks later, however, Local 435 also turned its sites on challenges from the new between the two sides into the next year, the members were joined by nearly 1,500 building Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.), C local’s 300 building laborers went on strike tradesmen in the city on July 5, 1939, in a a federation of unions created in 1935 as the beginning January 27, 1937, tying up jobs at strike protesting a new 130-hour work month Committee for Industrial Organizations that H the new city fire-department headquarters and regulation on W.P.A. sewer and construction had broken away from the A.F.L. and changed other project throughout the city and suburbs, projects across all trades throughout the its name in 1938. Rapidly growing during the E according to the February 7 Democrat and country. Under the rule, which the A.F.L. and Great Depression, as was the A.F.L., the C.I.O. Chronicle. After 10 days, during which union other organizations protested on a national almost immediately initiated invasions into the K S masons also refused to work in supportK of the level, Rochester’s laborers would work 130 building trades in Rochester. T strike, the laborers returned Rto work with the hours instead of 110 hours for their monthly R E promise that the contractors would “negotiate checks of $60.50. R terms of a settlement”O in the coming week. Local 435 held its first official annual picnic on July 16, , Y While W.P.A. officials threatened to dismiss all 1939, in Scheutzen Park in Rochester with about 4,000 N Following the negotiations on February 17, workers who walked off the city’s construction union members and their families attending. A caravan of O EW about 100 automobiles carried many attendees from the 1937, among concessions from the contractors projects (as they warned throughout the the building laborers of Local 435 won the country), that day the Rochester walkout began Carpenters’ Hall to the park, where they enjoyed an “athletic Y R program,” dancing and refreshments. closed-shop conditions they had been seeking mid-morning “when an automobile caravan for nearly two decades. of workers Otoured major sewer and pavement C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW While Local 435 originally called for peace 1941 through 1946 boost wages to 85 cents per hour, retroactive to LOCbetweenAL the competing two organizations – War Brings Boon, January 1, for the coming year. the local even 4passed a resolution in October Although Local 435 experienced full 1938 that commended3 attempts by Teamsters Laborers Shortage employment throughout the war years, wages International President 5Daniel J. Tobin to he United States’ entry into World throughout that time were essentially frozen unite the A.F.L. and the C.I.O. – the laborers War II in December 1941 finally put a at 1942 levels by the Little Steel Formula, a soon found that would not be the case. In fact, definitive end to the Great Depression as federal mandate that tied the cost of living the local in late 1939 initiated a stepped-up T wartime production and employment escalated. to pay increases to help stabilize wages. In campaign to organize laborers in response to Subsequently, the Local 435 membership would an attempt to reverse the ill effects of Little the “alleged invasion” of the C.I.O., the Labor be kept busy during the ensuing war Lyears as4 3Steel,5 A.F.L. and C.I.O. groups formed a Herald announced on September 8, 1939. demand for laborers dramaticallyA increased in joint committee in 1944, which was headed The newspaper further noted that Brothers and around Rochester, whichC was a significant by Local 435 Business Agent Genovese, that Genovese and Bruce reported “satisfactory industrial contributorO to the war effort. adopted recommendations for Congress to progress” in the campaign for membership. revise the formula. Wages for the local’sL members soared, as well, (The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. would eventually during the war years. On January 16, 1942, However, those and other efforts by union merge in 1955.) just one month after the country declared war organizations nationwide to curb the Little following the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Steel Formula went unheeded. As a result, wages As the Depression began fading into the base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, remained idle in Rochester to the point where country’s rear-view mirror by the end of the 1941, Local 435 voted to accept a 9-cent raise by mid-1945 there was a significant “dropping decade, in early 1940 Local 435 asked the from the Mason Contractors Association to off of laborers from Rochester construction Mason Contractors Association for a raise in wages of 10 cents to 80 cents per hour, which Laborers repair North Goodman Street in Rochester during a streetcar track removal the contactors insisted they could not provide, project in September 1943. (From the Collection of the Rochester Municipal Archives.) the Labor Herald reported on February 23, R 1940. With the rejection of a new scale stalemating multiple contract negotiations, the O laborers voted on February 27 to strike about 30 Rochester-area construction projects, including a large job at Brockport State Normal School (a C teacher training school that is now The College at Brockport), but they instead deferred the H action pending a meeting on February 29. However, the contractors association E remained non-committal to a raise and the S local struck on March 12 for theK next three K T weeks, during which time the union decreased E its demanded wage to 75 centsR per hour while R R some independent Ocontractors granted the , 80-cent hourlyY pay to their employees. A O NEWtruce was called on April 2 after the two sides agreed that an arbitrator would decide the wage, retroactive to April 2, which he ruled R Y on June 8 would be set at 72-1/2 cents per hour for the coming year. O C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW projects to take higher paying jobs in war- After appealing the decision, the local and LOCindustryAL work,” an article in the July 26, 1945, contractors were made to go back to the Democrat and 4Chronicle reported. bargaining table, where negotiations dragged 3 into July and the local again made plans for As such, “high-priority5 construction work a strike as discussions stalled. Ultimately, the in the city was falling dangerously behind union and employers reached an agreement schedule while laborers went into higher- on July 24 for a base pay of $1.20 an hour, paying war work,” according to the newspaper. retroactive to July 1, for the local’s laborers and What’s more, laborers had left the construction air-tool operators, who made up only about 10 industry so quickly that Local 435’s membership percent of the local’s now nearly 900-strong dropped within a few months in early 1945 35 L 4 membership. Brother Genovese stated in the from 800 to 500. CA Democrat and Chronicle that day that “the Those union laborers were finally granted an benefit to the greater number of workers O swayed the union from its stand in favor of a increase from 85 cents to $1 per hour on July 25, L 1945, after the local and the Mason Contractors differential for air-tool operators.” Association had filed a joint appeal to the War Democrat and Chronicle headline, July 26, 1945 1947 through 1949 Adjustment Board of the U.S. Department of Labor. The increase, which was retroactive to 1945, Local 435 continued to seek fair wage Marked Growth July 12, was “based on the second clause in the increases for its membership among a post-war to Close Out the ‘40s Little Steel Formula that provides for increases construction boom in Rochester. To that end, in when they are necessary to correct sub-standard January 1946 the local applied to the National s Local 435 continued to add conditions,” the newspaper reported. Labor Relations Board (N.L.R.B.) for approval membership during the second half of to take a strike vote unless it obtained a new the 1940s, its jurisdictional territory also The article also noted that construction A wage proposal from the Mason Contractors expanded when the international office merged contractors were highly supportive of the Association. At the time, the local was seeking a two struggling locals into the Rochester unit. R increase, as they had in some instances been 30-cent hourly boost to its $1-per-hour pay “to paying more than $1.50 per hour to skilled bring wages high enough to attract new men First, Laborers Local No. 811 of Albion, New O craftsmen who frequently had to perform to laborers’ jobs,” according to the January 31 York, which was down to just 11 members the work of laborers because of the lack of Rochester Labor News. and had requested to be transferred into Local common-labor workmen. 435, was disbanded and its members were After several weeks of negotiations and having merged into Local 435 on September 17, C Passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1944, dropped its demand for an increase to 25 cents, 1948. Although the Local 811 chartered had which provided funding for the creation of on February 14 the local approved terms of a only assigned it jurisdiction over its city, the H an interstate highway system, further set the new, one-year agreement with contractors amalgamation gave Local 435 coverage over stage for an explosion of economic growth for and called off plans for a strike. The contract all of Orleans County and the roughly $6 E the post-war United States and thousands of provided a new wage schedule of $1.30 an hour million in new projects being undertaken by jobs for International Hod Carriers, Building for pipe-layers and air-appliance operators and different industries located in the western end K S and Common Laborers of AmericaK members, $1.15 an hour for general laborers, retroactive of the county. T including those of Local 435. In Rochester, to January 1, 1946. R E strong employment for theR local’s members Shortly after, Laborers Local No. 1225 of R continued after the Owar with the construction However, the federal Wage Adjustment Hornell, New York, which had been chartered , of federally fundedY roads and byways. (To this Board in April 1946 significantly altered the on March 4, 1938, was then merged into O NEWday, the Highway Bill remains a mainstay for agreement by reducing the negotiated hourly Local 435 on December 22, 1948. With that LIUNA members, according to the international increase by 5 cents to 15 cents, wiping out the amalgamation, 19 construction- and general- union’s history.) new wageR classification for air-tool operators labor members were transferred into the Y and setting April 10 as the date for retroactive Rochester local. Following the war’s end in September pay to beginO instead of January 1. C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW That year, all members of Local 435 were being 1950 into 1953 were) aware of his tireless and great contributions LOCpaidA $1.45L per hour by employing members of Progress Only Slowed to the entire local labor movement and to the the Mason-Carpenter 4 Contractors Association. welfare of the union for which he devoted the 3 by B.A.’s Death last two decades of his life.” But into 1949, the local5 was seeking another raise of 35 cents per hour, a request it reduced o kick off the 1950s, Local 435 undertook Local 435 President Anthony Castagnaro and by mid-February to 22-1/2 cents while the a new, intensive organizing campaign Assistant Business Agent Ray Testa assumed with the goal of reaching a membership contractors refused to raise their original offer T dual leadership of the local for the remaining of 2,000 laborers by the end of the decade’s for a 15-cent increase during negotiations. three months of the late leader’s term, after first year. While the crusade fell short of its Subsequently, the local voted on February 23 which a regular election for business agent benchmark, by 1951 the local had grown to 3would5 be held. During a meeting of the local’s by a 461-to-31 margin to call a strike against L 4 1,700 members and had jurisdictionA over seven Executive Board on June 8, Brother Alphonso the contractors if its demands were not met, counties adjacent to the RochesterC area, making Gaglia was also appointed to serve as a business although the union would defer any strike it one of the largest Olabor organizations in the representative for the growing local. action for the Taft-Hartley Law’s required 60- region. (The localL would continue the campaign day “cooling-off period.” and surpass 2,000 members by 1954.) (Brother Castagnaro would go on to win the election in July 1951 and serve as the local’s A settlement on May 4, which postponed the Out in the field, about 125 members working business agent and then business manager for strike that was to begin that day, dictated that on the Mount Morris Dam on the Genesee the next 32 years until 1983.) an arbiter would decide if the local’s new scale River just south of Rochester in early 1950 should be set with a 15-cent raise to $1.60 per went on strike on June 9 to protest non-union The local’s leaders and membership were hour or a higher increase of up to 5 cents more foremen “taking over work of cement-finishers then obliged to take action against the Wage per hour. However, the union lost the decision who were members of the striking Mason, Stabilization Board’s national limit on wages at when the arbiter determined on May 19 that Bricklayers and Plasterers Union,” the June 10-percent above levels before the Korean War, the rate should remain at $1.60 per hour, with 12 Democrat and Chronicle reported. It would which the United State had entered in 1950 as no portion of the 5 cents in question added be several days before the laborers returned to part of the United Nations. Their protests were rebuffed, however, and the local was forced to R to the scale, for the balance of the year ending work on the $25 million, flood-control project, accept a 6-cent per hour raise beginning May 1, April 30, 1950. which began in 1948 and would be completed O in 1952. 1951, instead of the 10-cents it had negotiated Meanwhile, with the so-called “Red Scare” for the second year of its contract. At that time, the union laborers working on hysteria over the perceived threat of Communism Regardless, in April the following year the deepening throughout the country as the Cold the dam, as well as other Local 435 members, C were being paid $1.45 per hour for normal local asked for a 37-1/2 cent increase when that War between the United States and the Soviet labor work, $1.60 for air-tool jobs and tunnel contact expired on May 1, 1952 – although Union intensified in the late 1940s, the A.F.L.- work. By June 1950, the local also had already the Wage Stabilization Board had set the limit H aligned Central Trades and Labor Council of accepted a proposal from the Mason Carpenter at 22-1/2 cents. The local only gained a 20- E Rochester in early 1949 passed an amendment Contractors Association to raise their wage cent raise to $2 per hour in negotiations with to its bylaws that required all delegates to sign scale 10 cents per hour each year for the next contractors, which the Board put into effect K S a “non-Communist” affidavit. ThatK May, Local two years. on June 17. But that November, the local T 435 tabled a motion authorizing its delegate, won an arbitration decision calling on the R E Brother Genovese, to sign theR proclamation, However, just two years later Local 435 was Mason Carpenter Contractors Association to R effectively disqualifyingO him from participating rocked when Business Agent Genovese, who was join with the union in its appeal to the Wage , in the councilY until October 27, when the local in the process of serving his eighth term leading Stabilization Board asking it to make the wage the local, suddenly passed away on March 20, O NEWfinally permitted Brother Genovese to sign. hike retroactive to May 1. 1951, at age 55. Following his death, an article By that time, as the both tragic and prosperous in theR March 23 Rochester Labor News noted Meanwhile, as the local continued to grow, Y decade was coming to an end, Local 435 had Brother Genovese’s untimely death “caused in November 1952 it moved into a new union hall and headquarters at 511 North grown to about 1,400 member laborers. shock and deepO sorrow to a host of friends (who C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Godman Street, which had been a branch of 150 union members were LOCtheA RochesterL Public Library. The local had working for about 15 of purchased the 4 building from the library after the association’s member it announced it would3 move the branch into a contractors by that time on new building on Bay Street.5 the “general construction” of streets, pavement, sewers But the following May, contract talks between and water, storm and gas Local 435 and contractors were again deadlocked, lines. In January 1954, the prompting the local to call for a strike to begin local won an increase in on May 4 before it was granted a 10-cent-per pay for those members to hour raise soon after. After other building-trades 35 $2.23 an hour for one year, L 4 unions had signed their contracts the following retroactive to January 1. A month, the laborers were also awarded an C additional 2 cents to their hourly pay “because Then in MarchO 1954, of an agreement in their pact (that) guaranteed Local 435 joinedL 13 other the hod carriers one-half of the total increase unions affiliated with the granted to carpenters and masons above that of Allied Building Trades the hod carriers,” according to the June 3, 1953, Council in seeking increased Democrat and Chronicle. wages, a paid-vacation plan and other benefits in 1953 into 1957 contract negotiations with Local 435 members work on a sewer tunnel project for contractor H.F. Darling in 1963. Laborers Fight for More Victories contractor employers to replace contracts that would ocal 435 in 1953 also turned its attention expire April 30. If granted, included the War Memorial, which would be to housing construction as a means the paid vacation plan would be the first to ever opened on October 18, 1955. R Lfor gaining more employment for its be instituted in Rochester, according to the membership. To that end, in early August that March 8, 1954, Democrat and Chronicle. Earlier that year and again in 1956, year the local joined other building-trades contract negotiations between the laborers O unions in picketing a new housing tract near The Mason Carpenter Contractors Association and construction contractors went relatively Dewey Avenue and Latta Road in the Town of refused to provide the vacation plan and only smoothly. The two sides settled in May 1955 Greece, where some 30 homes were being built offered an 11-cent hourly boost to wages after on a 10-cent-per-hour raise for Local 435 C by a contractor, Caldwell & Cook, that refused two months of conferences, after which Local members for the ensuing year, and when that to meet with the unions. 435’s nearly 2,000 members went on strike deal expired, they agreed on April 27, 1956, on H beginning May 3. The work stoppage halted a two-year pact providing the union laborers At that time, three other housing contractors “virtually all of the 150 major construction with 15-cent increases for each year. and representatives of the Rochester Home projects in this area, the Democrat and Chronicle E Builders Association were already in discussions reported the next day, including work on the But when the contract that Local 435’s S with the trades, including the laborers. Then on new Rochester Community War Memorial more than 150 concrete workers had with the K September 9, the Local 435 agreed toK withdraw arena (which is now Blue Cross Arena). Concrete and Aggregates Association expired T its pickets from the housing-constructionR on December 31, 1956, the union men rejected R E sites of Caldwell & Cook in exchange for a A major article of dispute was the laborers’ a new two-year offer from the contractors in R jurisdictional electionO for the company’s non- demand for a guaranteed wage hike tied to a dispute over the expiration date of the new , N union employees, Y which the unions won. increases received by the masons and carpenters, contract. Specifically, the union sought to O EW according to the newspaper. But after 11 days, move the proposed ending date of December By the end of 1953, the local was also Local 435 voted to accept an 11-1/2-cent offer 31 nearer to the start of the spring construction Y negotiating with the Concrete Aggregates and from contractorsR and its members returned to season, the January 27, 1957, Democrat and Excavators Association of Rochester, as about work on MayO 17, 1954, resuming jobs that Chronicle reported. C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Although the laborers were being offered a 25- work was soon impeded by a national cement union tradesmen took their paid time off. The LOCcentA boostL to their $2.40-per-hour wage, they strike. As a result, unemployment rose sharply industry-wide shutdown was seen “as the best eventually went 4 on strike January 26, 1957, and in Local 435, whose members were also idled way to grant vacations with a minimum of several association 3firms subsequently closed on other projects including the Rochester State work stoppage, since staggered vacations would their doors that day. Under5 the guidance of a Hospital, and 265 laborers had been laid off by leave some projects short of skilled workers and state mediator, an agreement was ultimately July 26, 1957. could slow construction significantly,” the May reached on February 12 that not only provided 13, 1958, Democrat and Chronicle reported. the laborers with a 30-cent-per-hour raise over After the cement industry’s troubles were a two-year contract but also fixed the expiration resolved and Local 435’s members were back to The laborers put their new Health and date for March 1, 1959. work, the next year the local won a landmark, Welfare Plan, which initially covered about two-year construction contract fromL the4 31,4005 construction members, into operation in 1957 through 1959 contractors association that, Aamong other June 1958 with the possibility that 1,000 more Can of Worms, features, financed a new PaidC Vacation Fund members could soon enter into the benefit. and a new Health andO Welfare Plan. The pact The plan included life insurance for Local 435 Vacation & Welfare Funds included a total L25-cent-per-hour raise, the members and free hospitalization and medical first 15 cents of which would be paid the first insurance for members and their spouses and uring the mid-1950s, construction year beginning May 1, 1958, and go directly dependents, all of which was financed through of Rochester’s expressway system towards the new benefits. The laborers would employer payments of 7-1/2-cents-per-hour continued to escalate and was D then be given a 10-cent paycheck raise for the worked by the union members. substantially fueled by passage of the Federal- second year beginning May 1, 1959. Aid Highway Act of 1956. The new law Meanwhile, construction on the Can of authorized the construction of 41,000 miles The vacation plan, negotiated with the entire Worms picked up in late 1958 after the of interstate highways across the nation and building-trades industry in Monroe County, highway opened to the public that year as far allocated $26 billion to pay for them. called for a weeklong shutdown in 1959 while as its Linden Avenue interchange. The laborers Among those new projects was completion R of the Eastern Thruway, the eastern portion of the new Interstate 490 that was to run across the State of New York and whose first section O between Utica and Rochester had opened on June 24, 1954. The next portion, built under the new Highway Act with Local 435 C laborers, would lie just south of Rochester and included the Eastern Crossway, an intricate H interchange between Interstates 490 and 590 that would become derisively known as the E “Can of Worms” (because it would have many ramps racing about in a small, confined area). K S The Crossway built between FairportK Road T and South Landing Road wasR the very first R E project in the Rochester area to be funded with R the “then-revolutionary”O federal interstate aid , program, accordingY to an article in the Winter O NEW2015 issue of The Journal of the New York Museum of Transportation. R Y With construction of the Rochester-area portion of the interstate underway by 1957, Local 435O officers on July 4, 1975: (left to right) Harold Cohen, Jack Richards, Robert Kuntz Sr., Sam Trippi, Herman Boatwright, Fletcher Ware,C Clarence Carpenter, Anthony Castagnaro, George Gordon and (office manager)E JeanW DiMeo. HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW would work on the entire interchange largely 1960 through 1965 Meanwhile, on March 31, 1961, Local LOCbeginningAL in 1959 (and continue to do the Local 435 Gains 435’s 500 aggregate and excavating members bulk of its construction4 through 1962 before accepted a three-year contract from the the officially named3 Eastern Crossway was a Pension – and More Rochester Aggregates & Excavators Association finally opened on December5 1, 1964). that provided a total wage-and-benefits package ork was abundant for Local 435 valued at 40 cents per hour. The agreement throughout the 1960s, during which But in early 1959, Local 435 had to extend its included improvements in hospitalization and time most all of the construction expired excavation contract from February 28 W pension benefits and would bring the scale to in the Rochester region was done by union to May 1 while it rejected inadequate proposals $3.10 per hour beginning March 1, 1963. for a new agreement from the Rochester tradesmen, including the large amount of Aggregates & Excavators Association, including utility and sewer tunnel work that wouldL last4 3In5 another effort to organize workers, in a 16-cent hourly increase to the $2.70 wage into the mid-1970s. During theA decade, the November 1961, Local 435 and two other rate offered on March 27. Key in the local’s local’s members would be keptC busy on the glut unions began a campaign to organize city demands, the contractors’ offers provided “no of construction projectsO in and around the city, workers in Rochester, culminating in a meeting minimum work-week guarantee” and “failed to including continuedL expansion of the highway on November 19 during which approximately measure up to the vacation and hospitalization system, some of downtown Rochester’s tallest 400 city workers, mostly from the Department provisions of building-trades contracts,” buildings and work on St. Mary’s, Northside of Public Works, signed cards to join the unions, Business Agent Castagnaro explained in the and Genesee hospitals. the November 20 Democrat and Chronicle March 28, 1959, Democrat and Chronicle. reported. By December 4, that number rose to While working on one of those particular 600, according to the newspaper. Its hands tied, projects, the new, $30-million Midtown During a four-hour-long bargaining session City Council on December 26 approved, by a Plaza shopping mall in downtown Rochester, on April 23, the two sides hammered out a two- 5-to-4 vote, an ordinance giving city employees the local staged a one-day picket on April 1, year agreement that provided for a new hospital the right to be represented by a union. and surgical plan, a new vacation schedule and 1960, to gain seniority rights for its members wage increases for the local’s 500 aggregate and on the job after a worker was hired who had Then, after the local’s contract had expired excavation members. less seniority than a laborer who had not been on April 30 the following year, it signed an R hired. After the single-day work stoppage, agreement with the Building Trades Employers Then beginning August 31, Local 435 the contractor on the project’s garage, Perini Association on May 11, 1962, for a two-year O laborers were among the nearly 6,000 Corporation, agreed to a contract with the contract with hourly raises of 35 cents for each construction workers who began week-long local guaranteeing seniority rights. year. vacations, shutting or slowing down 99 percent of the construction projects in several Away from the construction sites, the union One year later, however, Local 435 and C counties, according to the August 28, 1959, laborers gained a significant benefit when Teamsters Local 398 waged a 17-day Democrat and Chronicle. However, work on the local, led by Brother Castagnaro, set up strike beginning April 1 that tied up heavy H “critical and emergency jobs” continued, a Pension Plan annuity in May 1960 that construction projects in the area after the including construction on schools that had to went into effect January 1, 1961. Though the E be completed before classes reopened. retirement-fund deduction from paychecks initially was not popular with the membership Responding to a call for all building-trades unions to be K S Brother Castagnaro told the newspaper that as a whole, the first checks from the pension K more racially inclusive in their selection of apprenticeship the vacations were “a milestone for the labor T plan were presented to about 90 retirees at a trainees, Local 435 in January 1964 joined other labor movement in the constructionR field” and further R E party on March 16, 1962. organizations and the Monroe County Human Relations R noted that constructionO unions had been trying Commission in formulating a plan to increase apprentice- , for 20 years toY win vacations. Perhaps fittingly, The local also gained a new, two-year training opportunities in construction for minorities. Under N the tradesmen would return from their first- contract from the Building Trades Employers the proposal, the unions would notify the commission O EW of apprentice programs, including time and place of ever paid time off on the Tuesday after Labor Association that began May 1, 1960, with a examinations, and the commission would then assist in Day – however, the vacation benefit would be raise in the basic laborers’ rate to $2.86 per Y R recruiting candidates for the training programs. short-lived as it would not be included in the hour. The following May 1, that was raised to building trades’ next contract. $2.98 per hour.O C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW unions’ request to renegotiate their five-year 1966 through 1969 LOCHeavyA andL Highway agreement under a wage More Strides while reopener clause 4 was denied. Several other upstate New York 3laborers locals that were Building Up its Region party to the agreement,5 which would run to he second half of the 1960s saw Laborers’ December 31, 1964, did not participate. Local 435 exponentially grow to more Local building affected by the strike included Tthan 5,000 total members as the local six projects on the Western Expressway, two took part in some of the most important and on the Outer Loop, a 500-foot-long ramp iconic construction projects in the Rochester from the Eastern Crossway to the loop; a area. Those included construction beginningL in4 35 portion of Route 19; and the municipal airport 1967 of the R. E. Ginna NuclearA Power Plant runway. But on April 17, the locals withdrew in Ontario, New York, whichC went online in their picket lines after receiving an offer from 1970 despite Local O435 and other building- contractors for 36-cent hourly wage boost over trades members Lhaving to work at a “near- the coming two-years. frenetic” pace to complete the facility. Local 435 joined other locals again on May The tallest building in the city was also built 4, 1964, to shut down more than 65 projects in at this time using Local 435 labor when the Monroe County with a strike after agreements 30-story Xerox Tower was erected in downtown with the Building Trades Employers Association Rochester in 1967. The tallest building in the expired. Although the laborers received “fair” country made of poured-in-place exposed wage concessions in a proposed three-year deal, aggregate concrete at the time, the skyscraper the local voted on June 5 to continue its strike was initially used as the headquarters of Xerox Local 435 members (top to bottom) Don in order to gain better working conditions. Corporation and was the centerpiece of the Campbell, Don Evankovich, Henry McElroye Xerox Square complex. and Pete Maloney work a tunnel job in 1981. R After seven weeks, the Local 435 accepted a new contract on June 19, approving a three- Another significant structure in which the year wage package of 20 cents the first year, 20 local’s members were involved in making a O cents more the second year and an additional reality during that period was the Strasenburgh 25 cents the third year. With the pact, wages Planetarium on East Avenue in Rochester. for the final year of the contract for street and Construction of the domed astronomy theater C pavement work would climb to $3.75 per hour began with a groundbreaking ceremony beginning April 1, 1966 – although it would on March 16, 1967, and the building was H contain no funded vacation benefit. dedicated on September 14, 1968. E The year before in February 1965, the local’s During that time, a cement strike in April heavy and highway construction workers also 1967 by more than 400 cement truck drivers K S won a new three-year contract withK the State and loaders did stop work on projects on several T Association of General Contractors, Highway prominent projects on which Local 435 was R E and Heavy Construction RDivision. The working. As a result, nearly 400 laborers were R agreement, which coveredO about 20 laborer laid off from jobs including the nuclear power , locals in theY state, provided hourly wage plant, the new Monroe Community College O NEWhikes of 20 cents the first year, 22 cents the campus in Rochester and the new University of second and 23 cents the third, with additional Rochester library. contributions to pension and health-and- Y But Rafter the cement strike had ended, the welfare funds. local on MayO 8 accepted a new, three-year, C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW building-trades contract for a total $1.25-per- continue over the next decade in the city and Future Local 435 business manager Dan Chour raise from contractors without having to Monroe County, providing more employment LO AL Kuntz sets dynamite during a Lake Avenue go on strike. for the union laborers. 43 tunnel job in Rochester, circa 1984. However, the next year5 the local’s Heavy During that time, the Eastman Kodak and Highway members were again compelled Company (Kodak), whose world headquarters to stop working when their contract expired, were – and continue to be – located in Rochester, affecting $17 million in Rochester-area undertook a major expansion beginning in the construction, according to the April 4, 1968, late 1960s and through the early 1970s. Many Democrat and Chronicle. After several days, of company’s buildings would be built using Local 435 and 18 other locals reached an union labor, including Local 435 laborers.L 435 agreement with the New York State Associated A General Contractors of North America, Heavy But first, an 11-week building-tradesC strike and Highways Division, after which the laborers beginning May 1, O1970, brought most all returned to jobs on projects such as the Keeler construction in Lthe Greater Rochester area Street Expressway, the Outer Loop in Greece, to a crawl. Some of the $200 million in work Interstate 490 near Bushnells Basin and the that was affected included 17 schools, the new Irondequoit Bay Bridge and approaches. Monroe County Jail, a sewage treatment plant, the $26-million Lincoln First Bank tower in The new Heavy and Highway Division three- downtown Rochester, a classroom building at the year agreement began April 1, 1968, and raised University of Rochester, a $7-million apartment For contract negotiations in 1974, the wages to between $4.79 and $5.39 for various house for nurses and medical personnel by building trades, including Laborers Local 435, occupations. It also would provide 15 cents per Strong Memorial Hospital, three buildings at for the first time ever “banded together and hour to the laborers’ welfare funds and 20 cents Xerox Corporation’s Webster facilities and a agreed early in negotiations to establish a single per hour to their pension funds. Kodak project on Scottsville Road. industry contract pattern to avert strikes,” R Adding to the glut of work employing Local 435 finally settled with the Building the June 29, 1974, Democrat and Chronicle Local 435 members, in late 1969 and into the Trades Employers Association on July 12 by reported. As a result, 17 unions accepted similar 1970s Genesee Community College began signing a new, two-year contract with a total two-year contracts by June 28, with the union O construction of a new campus in Batavia, New $2.75-per-hour package increase. It specifically laborers gaining wage and benefit increases of York, which would be dedicated in April 1972. gave the laborers a basic hourly rate of $5.58 70 cents the first year and 75 cents the second on May 1, 1970, and a rate of $6.98 beginning year of their contract. C 1970 through 1974 November 1, 1971, for the balance of the pact. “Our fringe benefits were increased Abundant Work H With the agreement in hand, more than 150 tremendously in all phases, Brother Castagnaro and Contract Activity union laborers returned to work on the Van announced in the newspaper, noting that the Lare Sewage Plant. The largest wastewater- builders voted to put 19 cents of each year’s E ith a membership of more than increase into the union’s welfare, pension and treatment facility on the U.S. side of Lake K S 4,500 entering the 1970s, more Ontario when completed in 1971, the plant supplementary unemployment-insurance funds. work came for Local K435 when W would service the Rochester community. 1975 through 1979 T the U.S. Department of HousingR and Urban R E Development (HUD) in early 1970 gave the The local’s members also returned to From Feast to Famine R go-ahead for the RochesterO Housing Authority complete construction of the Lincoln First and Then Back Again , N to buy 396 unitsY of low-rent housing to be built Bank skyscraper (now The Metropolitan), O EWon Hudson Avenue. With that construction which would be opened in 1973. The third- s many of those larger projects were and an influx of additional residential building tallest building in Rochester with 27 floors, the completed by the second half of the Y taking place in the area, a large amount of buildingR is unique for its white vertical “fins” 1970s, construction work in and sewer and tunnel construction work would also and outward curves at its base. A O around Rochester quickly dried up and no C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW new major construction was taking place. throughout the city and Monroe County as LOCInA fact,L as the national economy struggled, residential construction picked up. The tunnel contract awards 4 in 1974 had decreased 34 work would be a strong source of employment LONGTIME LEADER HONORED percent over 1973, 3according to the May 28, for Local 435 for the next roughly 15 years. FOR TOUGHNESS, SACRIFICE 1975, Democrat and Chronicle5 . But many Local 435 members went relatively In 1981, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle named Because of the subsequent shortage of longtime Local 435 Business Manager Anthony Castagnaro idle for nearly two years from 1976 through its “Toughest Labor Leader.” The newspaper noted in the construction jobs, unemployment in the 1977 when the sluggish economy created a March 15 issue that announced the honor that “insiders building trade unions in 1975 was running at “famine of road construction jobs,” as the who deal with local labor unions say Castagnaro has few about 45 percent. For the laborers, however, it October 12, 1978, Democrat and Chronicle equals for being a hard-nosed, but respected, labor leader was as high as 75 percent. described it. During that time, 800 members 4 35and businessman.” L For his part, Brother Castagnaro said, “You have to of Local 435 were out of work inA late 1977 and have compassion and understand everybody’s viewpoint. As a result, in May 1975, some local building a year before, 1,200 were unemployed.C trade unions, including Laborers’ Local 435, The days of the tough bosses are gone. I don’t think it’s agreed to hold down wages to encourage But the good timesO returned in 1978 – a question of being tough, but rather of being honest with L industry and the members you represent.” construction. The Builders’ Exchange of although not to the extent of construction’s Local 435 dedicated its union hall to Brother Castagnaro Rochester announced on June 2 that year that heydays in the 1960s – thanks in large part to on May 28, 2003, “in gratitude for 35 years of innovative unions “will hold this year’s line on wages for the road construction and repair. “The feast has leadership, sacrifice and tireless efforts on its behalf.” next two years on any construction job bid from returned to the Rochester area,” the newspaper June to December,” the newspaper reported. declared, as more than 2,000 laborers and heavy-equipment operators in Monroe Regardless, because of the exponential County and the surrounding area who had in a six-county area that includes Monroe, growth in its membership Local 435 had been idled a year earlier were working again Orleans, Genesee, Genesee, Wyoming, been experiencing, that year it purchased a in October 1978. Livingston and Ontario counties, according to new, larger union hall at 20 Fourth Street in the Democrat and Chronicle.) Rochester and held a grand opening for its Indeed, the bulk of the state’s $200 million R new facility in August 1975, at which time it share for roads was for the construction of By October 1978, all Local 435 members had more than 3,600 total members. To help the Outer Loop and Genesee Expressway in had jobs and 1,200 of them were on road fund the new building, Local 435 was the first southern Monroe County. (By comparison, the crews. “Everybody’s working. It’s beautiful,” O laborers’ local in the state to institute a dues state spent $40 million on road work in 1976 Local 435 Business Agent George Gordon told check-off from members’ paychecks of 10 cents the newspaper. per hour, which was briefly raised to 20 cents C per hour at one point in time. Local 435 members march in the 1988 Rochester Labor Day Parade. H When the construction industry eventually picked up again, among the more-prominent E projects on which the local’s laborers were working was Rochester’s new City Hall – K S Rochester’s first new government Kheadquarters T in over a century – beginning in late 1976. The R E 87-year-old former Federal BuildingR at North R Fitzhugh and ChurchO streets was revamped at a , cost of $4.7 millionY before it was re-opened on O NEWMay 5, 1978. As the second half of the 1970s progressed, Y the local also began working on a large amount R of tunnel projects for sewers and utilities O C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW The laborers and other unions were also given Trieste, a business agent for the local, were LOCaA boost Lby the city and county’s “ambitious” indicted by a federal grand jury on charges resurfacing and4 reconstruction projects, as the of assaulting Polito less than a month after city’s capital improvement3 program totaled $13 his speech, the January 21, 1983, Democrat million that year, according5 to the newspaper. and Chronicle reported. The indictment Besides a $3 million federally funded sidewalk said “the confrontation was intended to reconstruction, other projects included repairs stop Polito from making further speeches,” to Park, Hudson and Joseph avenues, Culver according to the newspaper. and Winton roads, and Bloss and Alexander streets. Meanwhile, the county financed $3.5 The article further reported, “Police say Local 435 has been infiltrated by 35 million in road projects outside the city and had L 4 a $6 million share of projects inside the city line, organized crime and that the RochesterA underworld has used its powerC to provide adding to the opportunities for Local 435. patronage union jobsO to mobsters and 1980 through 1989 their relatives.” L Local 435 laborers work on reconstruction of the Enduring Lows before However, a federal jury on March “Can of Worms” interstate highway intersection Enjoying New Highs 24, 1983, found Trieste not guilty of in Rochester during the summer of 1990. conspiring to violate a union member’s here was little consistent work during rights under federal labor law and the early- and mid-1980s for the Local could not reach a verdict on another count T435 membership, which as a result and the two counts against Piccarreto. In a would dwindle to about 1,500 before the end retrial, on May 25, 1983, a federal magistrate of the decade. Meanwhile, contractors regularly dismissed the two-counts against each of the requested wage concessions from the local in defendants. order to gain more work. R During that time, Local 435 and 18 other The local did gain a three-year contract from LIUNA locals gained a three-year “Tunnel the Building Trades Employers Association and Shaft Construction” agreement in 1982 O beginning June 1, 1981, that paid an hourly with the Associated General Contractors of wage of $10 that year and $11.60 the third America that provided an initial basic wage year. The contract further gave the laborers of $11.51 per hour in Rochester. The total C $3.88 in total benefits the first year and $4.72 $15.30 per hour package included $1.30 for the final year. welfare benefits and $1.49 for the pension H fund. However, during the first half of the 1980s a E skewed public view of Local 435 was provided The local staged its last true strike in 1984 through the media following the saga of Brother to protest contractors giving laborers’ work to K S John H. Polito. The 25-year memberK made other trades. After that, wages were relatively T headlines after he declared at a local meeting on stagnant for the next roughly five years, but R E December 28, 1979, “There isR talk going through the local did place a large portion of its wages R the membership thatO the mob is infiltrating our into funds, which helped make the local fiscally , local. If so, it’sY time for us, the members, to rise strong during that time and beyond. N up and get them the hell out of here, and anyone O EW Under the leadership of Business Manager else who wants to go with them.” Philip Olverd, the local began an unemployment Y On December 15, 1982, “reputed mobsters” annuityR in 1985. Although many members Loren Piccarreto, a Local 435 steward, and Joseph were against it, and especially older members, Overhead of the “Can of Worms” O intersection of Interstates 490 and C 590 during reconstruction in 1990.EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW over time the fund would prove very valuable Meanwhile, work had surged for Local LOCtoA the membershipL in times of need. 435 members with the reconstruction of the 4 “Can of Worms” interchanges of Interstates LABORERS, BUILDING TRADES But shortly after 3Business Manager Robert 490 and 590 beginning in 1988. The more- TAKE ON ASBESTOS Brown took over leadership5 of the local in 1986, than $100-million job to “straighten out” the The Rochester Building Trades Council announced the local was sued by the Rochester Laborers’ intersection was the largest single-contractor Trust Fund over the annuity. The local settled in October 1986 that of the 161 Rochester-area union highway project in the state’s history and members who had passed away since 1950, 19 died as the suit and subsequently raised member dues provided ample employment for the local the result of cancer. At least eight of those men died of lung from 20 cents to 60 cents per hour to help pay through to its completion in October 1991. cancer, which was already being associated with asbestos the settlement, but the additional funds also insulation, while 12 living union members at that time had helped further stabilize the local’s finances over With a union contractor being awarded 4 35lung cancer or other serious lung diseases. L Given that construction-trades workers were most the ensuing years. the reconstruction job of theA Rochester International Airport in 1988C (even through susceptible to extensive exposure to asbestos during construction and demolition of buildings with the insulation The local then gained a Maintenance a non-union firm was low-bidder on the Agreement from the Building Trades Employers O agent, the Building Trades Council and Local 435 beginning contract), Local L435 members would also in 1986 mobilized thousands of active members and retirees, Association in 1988. The two-year contract, work on the $109-million terminal expansion arranging medical tests and legal seminars to prepare signed on May 11, gave the local a basic rate on beginning in 1989. Brother Brown and three members who had been sickened by asbestos fibers. maintenance work of $10.16 per hour the first Local 435 business agents even attended the While asbestos workers who installed insulation may year beginning May 31, 1988, and $11.08 per groundbreaking in July that year, soon after have had the most direct exposure to asbestos, many hour the second year beginning May 1, 1989. other workers were exposed to large amounts, particularly which the local was able to resolve differences laborers. As a result, Local 435 and a number of other A new, two-year building-trades contract with the contractor, including establishing an unions organized and funded health screenings and other beginning May 1, 1988, would raise the basic underground agreement and new work rules efforts to find asbestos-related injuries or deaths among hourly rate for construction laborers to $13.67 that included sharing work equally among all their members and retirees. union laborers. “That’s what we’re working on hot and heavy right now, by May 1, 1989, and to $15.04 for blasters. to go through our death records to see who died from For that second year, contactor contributions As the decade was coming to an end, Brother what,” Local 435 Business Manager Bobby Brown told the R to welfare would be up to $1.60 per hour, Brown was able to inform the membership October 26, 1986, Democrat and Chronicle. As the campaign continued, Local 435 provided cancer to pensions up to $2.03 per hour, and to during the local’s August 30, 1989, general the annuity up to $1.49 per hour – and the screenings for its members through mobile screening O meeting that work “looks good for Local 435 trailers at the union hall, while also guiding members in employers would be paying 20 cents per hour at this time.” seeking legal assistance. What’s more, since the discovery into a Training Fund, which was initially of the toxic effects of asbestos created a need in the funded the first year at 10 cents per hour. He was also able to report that the local construction industry for its abatement in existing buildings C had “finally gotten the break that we needed and structures, the local has further provided training for its Excavating and paving members also with Kodak.” After five years, the Local 435 members in proper asbestos removal. H received a new, two-year deal, boosting their succeeded in gaining an asbestos abatement basic rate to $12.93 on May 1, 1989, for the contract with Kodak as part of an ongoing, second year of the contract. A new wage scale E $80-million, facility-wide project the company kept employment steady through the early for the local’s residential work was also set in had undertaken. K S that contract at $9.86 per hour theK first year years of the decade, including construction and $10.34 the second. 1990 through 1999 of the new Livingston County Correctional T R Facility, which was completed in 1991. R E Local 435 and LIUNA Local 103 of Geneva Unified R also entered into a new,O three-year Tunnel and to Close Out The Millennium Trouble was brewing, however, between the , N Shaft Construction Y Agreement with employers local and the LIUNA International Office O EWin 1988. The Rochester laborers would receive ork for Local 435 members in early 1990 when the union mandated a basic total wage-and-benefits package of remained strong into the 1990s. that the local join with the Buffalo laborers’ Y $24.32 beginning with the start of the third RSeveral large jobs in addition to the training program. While the local fought the W merger, the rift between the Rochester local year on June 1, 1990. highway rebuildO and the airport enlargement C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW and the international would play out just a 1990s and the non-union incursion into its Local 435 Brother Jim Bush works on Cfew years later. jurisdiction continued its two-decade-long LO AL construction of a new terminal at the 4 Rochester International Airport in 1991. acceleration, Local 435 stayed vigilant within In the meantime,3 Local 435 remained the construction industry. To that end, the vigilant during the early5 1990s even though local joined Operating Engineers Local 832 employment was strong. For example, the local in June 1995 to protest changes in Rochester joined other building-trades unions during that Gas and Electric’s bidding policies, “saying that time in an informational picketing campaign the utility is unfairly awarding jobs to non- that turned some construction of Walgreens union labor and forcing union contractors out stores in the area from non-union to union. 43of business,”5 the June 23, 1995, Democrat and Chronicle reported. What’s more, by that time Local 435’s AL participation in LIUNA’s Laborers-Employers C Subsequently, the two unions began a Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET), O campaign that month targeting the utilities an international program to bring locals and L policies. “Over 25 years, we’ve supported signatory contractors together to address everything they’ve done. Now we’ve been important issues, had escalated. With a shut out,” Brother Brown proclaimed in the portion of the local’s total package scale being newspaper. “We will make them become a contributed to LECET, Rochester’s laborers municipal utility that represents everyone.” and management would work to identify new markets and position contractors to capitalize In another example of the local’s on those opportunities. 1994, Democrat and Chronicle reported that determination to protect its jurisdiction during that down period, during the spring of 1997 Also to begin the decade, the local in April a hearings panel in Albany the month before found Local 435 “blatantly violated the LIUNA the local waged a public-relations campaign 1990 received a new, two-year building to stop the owners of the new Frontier Field agreement with a 4-percent raise each year. The constitution by refusing to cooperate in joint collective bargaining through LIUNA’s Upstate from using Monroe County jail inmates and R next year, the local and Local 103 signed a new, not paid laborers to clean the stadium after three-year contract for tunnel work that would New York District Council, the organization which is constitutionally mandated to act as its Rochester Red Wings baseball games and raise basic total wages and benefits to $22.23 Rochester Rhinos soccer matches. Ultimately, O per hour beginning June 1, 1993. bargaining agent.” In addition to the airport, the “Can of The international Worms,” the prison and several other substantial remained trustee Local 435 participates in a large protest picket by the building C trades at the University of Rochester in February 1991. jobs, Local 435 members were at work on an over the local’s nearly H addition to the Genesee Hospital in 1992 and 1,500 members for 1993. But that year, when those projects came about one week before to an end, work for the local’s building laborers the two sides came to E an agreement on April slowed dramatically and would continue to be K S sluggish throughout 1994 and the second half 26, 1994. Among K the settlement’s of the decade. T R reconciliations, the R E Then in April of that year, LIUNA placed local would participate R Local 435 under trusteeshipO and took over the in regional training at , N local after it refusedY to take part in negotiations its own determination. O EWas part of the new Upstate New York Laborers’ District Council, while the local also protested As work remained Y having to pay 5 cents per hour worked by stagnantR in the members into the Council. The April 12, second halfO of the C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Just before his retirement at the end of 1999, LOCALIUNA General President Arthur A. Coia on December 27 announcedL that LIUNA locals in Western New York, including Local4 435, were3 reassigned from the union’s Mid-Atlantic Region to the New England Region of LIUNA. “This realignment has5 the obvious advantage of reuniting Local Unions in Western New York with other Upstate New York Local Unions,” Brother Coia explained in a letter to the locals. 435 the laborers won their fight against the for- AL profit organization using free labor, prompting C Brother Brown to write in a letter in the June 10, 1997, Democrat and Chronicle: “Remember, O the union seems to be the only voice speaking L out about this issue. Our concerns are not about union or non-union; they are what is Local 435 awards ceremony on April 22, 1992. lawful and good for the taxpaying worker.” Then in September the following year, However, before the end of the decade, the 2000 through 2007 Local 435 and two of Rochester’s other largest century and the millennium, no large projects building-trades unions joined forces with more Local Works were underway and tunnel work had slowed than 150 union contractors in an attempt to a crawl, severely affecting the already-slack to Reverse Unfavorable Trend to boost demand for union labor in a labor- construction employment in the Rochester management partnership called UNICON. ethargic employment for Local 435 area. Consequently, active membership in Composed of the contractors, the laborers, persisted into the new “Y2K” millennium R Local 435 diminished to about 800 by the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 11 as the struggling local economy and the end of 1999 and would remain around L and Carpenters Local 85, UNICON would non-union creep into the Rochester region’s that number through to the local’s 100th O represent nearly 2,000 members as the result construction industry continued. The local, anniversary in 2018. of an agreement the year before by the three however, did not lessen its resolve to protect unions to re-open and extend their contracts its jurisdiction. C before they had expired. On June 14, 2000, H “The question we’re trying to deal with is, Local 435, as the union ‘How can we both survive?’” Brother Brown, representative of gas- E who was serving as UniCon vice-chairman, and-electric line workers, explained in the September 4, 1998, Democrat picketed outside the K S and Chronicle. K Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) headquarters on T Through UniCon, the unionR construction East Avenue – as it had in the R E industry would work to inform the public about 1990s – because the utility R the advantages of usingO union labor: quality, was giving preferential , reliability, safety and training. It was also the N Y treatment to out-of- O EWgoal of the alliance to reverse a trend that saw town, non-union workers. construction employment for both union and During the 90-minute Y The RLocal 435 team that won its bowling league in 1993 consisted non-union workers in the six-county Rochester rally, members of the local of (left to right) brothers Brien Zingo, Bob Strollo and Nick Ulakovic. area fall nearly 20 percent since 1990. O pointed out that RG&E was C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW A single but poignant example of Local 435’s LOCAvast political activism across its 100 years took placeL on July 11, 2000, when labor unions delivered 2,0004 completed3 voter-registration forms to the Monroe County Board of Elections. The voter registration drive was funded5 by Local 435, along with the state Laborers’ Education and Cooperation Cooperation & Trust, the Rochester Building Trades Council and UniCon, the partnership between local unions and contractors. The following year on August 22, 2001, Local 435 again led an alliance of unions and construction 435 firms that presented 1,300 new voter registration L cards to county elections officials. CA Local 435 picket lineL onO March 24, 1994, protesting non-union street and sewer work in Rochester. practicing a “systematic and devious assault bear fruit. In fact, the local announced in its new professional soccer stadium in Rochester aimed at shutting union contractors out of gas- newsletter late that year that its out-of-work list began in July 2004 – after the alliance of and-electric line work.” was “pretty lean.” three unions, including Local 435, and their contractors had played a major role in securing Then in 2001, the Rochester building trades Into 2003 and 2004, Local 435’s signatory funding. “(UNICON) is perhaps the real clout and the union laborers won a union-friendly construction contractors were busy with a that brought together state and local leaders in Project Labor Agreement for the $74-million number of additional projects, including Rochester,” the Democrat and Chronicle had replacement of the historic Stutson Street work at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, declared on April 17, 2000, after the coalition bridge over the Genesee River, ensuring the new Port of Rochester Terminal at the convened a meeting of Rochester’s state another employment opportunity for Local mouth of the Genesee River, the James E. delegates. 435. The span was subsequently supplanted Smith Community Center in Perinton and St. R with the new Colonel Patrick O’Rorke Bridge, Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. Shortly after, the state pledged $15 million which opened to traffic on October 1, 2004. to the project, which would be home to the The local joined other building-trades unions Rochester Rhinos. After continued lobbying O On the heels of those successful activities once again in June 2004 for a large-scale and others, the local’s job situation markedly protest campaign against Kohl’s department- turned around in late 2002 as the union store company, which was using C laborers’ Market Recovery Program, which contractors who were not giving The Local 435 Retirees Club was formed and chartered in 2003. allowed signatory contractors to bid certain workers fair wages and benefits to H projects using just 80-percent of the local’s build stores in the area. Local 435 wage rates, was working well and beginning to in particular picketed Kohl’s West E Ridge Road location in Greece, which was being built by a non- K S K union contractor. “We wanted T LIUNA International General RPresident Terence M. people to know that they were not R E O’Sullivan issued a charter for the Upstate New York paying their employees a decent R Laborers’ District CouncilO on September 20, 2002. The wage at all their facilities,” laborers , new CouncilY was initially comprised of Local 435 and sister Organizer Ed Wright told the June locals No. 7 of Binghamton; No. 103 of Geneva; No. 186 O N 19, 2004, Democrat and Chronicle. EWof Plattsburgh; No. 210 of Buffalo; No. 214 of Oswego; No. 322 of Ogdensburg; No. 433 of Syracuse; No. 589 of Meanwhile, one of UNICON’s Y Ithaca; No. 621 of Olean; and No. 1358 of Corning. R major campaigns was proving successful whenO construction of a C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW in man-hours in 2004, as it had over the State Building Trades to engage in similar legal OC previous few years, and as a result, in late activities wherever Walgreens stores will be Local 435 Brother Ed Wright served as an L AL 2014 the local raised its members’ dues constructed.” officer of the local beginning in August 1991 when 4 he was appointed recording secretary. He was from 6 percent3 to 7 percent of wages, later appointed a field agent in February 2004. effective January 51, 2005. During the In another action with the intent to “increase Brother Wright not only was a proud and local’s regular November 2004 meeting, market share and to serve and protect the best dedicated Local 435 member and officer, he also the membership approved the increase, interests of our members,” as LIUNA General was very patriotic, having served in Vietnam. which would help offset an increase in the President Terence M. O’Sullivan explained in He passed away following a heart attack on a letter, LIUNA Local No. 103 was merged October 15, 2006. local’s financial obligations to the LIUNA Local 435 into Local 435 on April 25, 2007, giving the “Some of the greatest things about Ed were Brother Ed Wright international and regional offices, which 3Rochester-based5 local jurisdiction over Geneva. his thoughtfulness of others, his love for his included an extensive organizing effort. L 4 family and country, and his deep passion for the A The officers and members of Local 103 had members of Local 435 and the community in Since early 2005, Local 435 and the C earlier voted for the merger after the local’s which they served,” Local 435 Brother Dan Kuntz Rochester Building and Construction O membership averaged less than 300 laborers remembered later that year. Trades Council were also engaged in a L over the previous year. campaign to persuade Walgreens and Local 435 members take part in protests its developers to use local tradespeople Local 435 and four other local unions were against non-union construction of Kohl’s also involved that year in a unique project, supported by UNICON and and subcontractors and to provide their department stores in its jurisdiction in 2004. workers with fair wages and benefits. called Charlotte Square, that would build 40 nearly two years of construction, high-end condos in the popular East End of on which many Local 435 Utilizing consistent informational Community Benefit Agreements that required Rochester. The locals loaned developers $10 members were employed, the new, picketing, the unions made some progress them to hire 85 percent union labor. Construction million in pension-fund money to finance the $35-million PAETEC Park opened on by early 2006. of the Henrietta store was eventually completed project (an investment deal that UNICON June 3, 2006. (After being renamed several times, Specifically, the Town of Brighton issued a with nothing but union craftspeople. helped broker), which was a first for the area, it is now Marina Auto Stadium.) stop-work order in January that year on the according to an article in the December 19, Even with those achievements, the laborers But the local was still experiencing a decrease Walgreens project there after the developer 2007, Democrat and Chronicle. R failed to meet the town’s workforce agreement and the building trades did not relent. Local requiring that at least 90 435 Business Agent O percent of the workers and Organizer Dan be local. Construction Kuntz, who was a Local 435 participates in Rochester’s 2006 Labor Day Parade. was subsequently halted key strategic player C for several months until in the campaign, fines for the violations even proclaimed in were paid and the 2007, “If necessary, H developer complied we will go to every with the agreement, town meeting. We E after which the Brighton will picket all stores S Walgreens store opened under construction. K in 2007 – Kalmost one We will handbill T year pastR schedule and at all open stores. R E costs significantly higher We will re-run R Othan if it had been built our radio spots to , N Y with a union contractor. coincide with store O EW openings. And, we Elsewhere, in Newark will continue to Y Local 435 takes part in a protest action against the proposed non-union and Henrietta, Walgreens educateR and help construction of the Town of Perinton’s new aquatic center in February 2004. developers signed all other NewO York C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW 2008 through June 20, 2018 Then construction of theWebster Water OC Treatment Plant, one of the largest and most L ReinforcingAL Its The Rochester City School District in 2010 named its significant jobs in Local 435’s history, put 4 new Robert Brown School of Construction and Design after Foundation for3 the Future many laborers to work during the early 2010s. Local 435’s longtime business manager. Brother Brown 5 The central component of the Monroe County had been a strong supporter of the vocational education ith its Market Recovery Program also Water Authority’s East Side Water Supply programs at the district’s Edison School of Applied gaining more traction, Local 435 was Project, the $150-million plant was the most Technology, which the new school replaced. gathering momentum to finish out W expensive public-works project in the region. the first decade of the new millennium. Indeed, the program by that time was undeniably The union laborers for nearly two years successful, with its Market Recovery Fund able beginning in 2010 helped construct the system’s 4 3in February5 2015 by the laborers as part of the L Building and Construction Trades Council for to pay employees the difference between their 6,000-foot-long, 9-foot-diameterA intake tunnel bid rate and their regular wage rate on jobs won deep under Lake Ontario, Cwhich would draw construction of the new Monroe Community by contractors using the program. fresh lake water to supplyO the treatment plant. College downtown Rochester campus. The Once completed in 2013, the facility was agreement guaranteed that the project would The start of a massive expansion of the L capable of supplying 50 million gallons of employ local unions for at least 75 percent of University of Rochester, including construction water each day to users. the work, which would involve a large amount of new dorms, also began during the late 2000s of building renovation. and would provide work for Local 435 laborers Meanwhile, Local 435 members helped into the 2010s. construct a new, $180-million building out As they approached the centennial mark of of the former Park Ridge Hospital in Greece their local, the union laborers were (and still Additionally, Local 435 members became (which had been built in 1974) for Unity are) involved in many other significant projects involved in the growing wind-power industry Hospital from 2010 to its completion in 2014. in and around Rochester that have helped during that time, helping to construct several the region to expand and grow. Not the least wind farms in the area and continuing to do But over the decade leading up Local of these was the $30 million construction of so over that ensuing decade. One prominent 435’s 100th anniversary in 2018, the local’s a new Rochester Train Station terminal that R windmill project, for example, that employed fight against ever-mounting non-union began in October 2014 under a Project Labor the local’s members was the 126-kilowatt Noble competition continued, as did its need to deal Agreement and opened in October 2017. Wethersfield Windpark in Wyoming County, with anti-union laws and regulations. These O New York, which involved the installation of have been battles ardently led by Brother Among the many additional prominent 84 energy-producing wind turbines in 2008 Kuntz since 2012, when he took over as Local jobs employing union laborers was the and 2009. 435 business manager. transformation of the below-grade section of C the highway inner-loop between Interstate Subsequently, the local again found itself at 490 and Main Street in Rochester into an at- Construction of wind turbines at the Noble Wethersfield Windpark in 2007. H the front door of Rochester Gas and Electric on grade boulevard. The $23.6-million removal of November 14, 2014, when members gathered the expressway that began in December 2014 E at the utility’s headquarters to protest its unfair created six acres of development land for future bidding practices on demolition projects for use and would save taxpayer money after it was K S K the old Russell Generating Station in Greece completed in March 2018. and the old Beebe power Plant in Rochester. T Working under the first-ever private Project R RG&E had hired NorthStar group of California R E Labor Agreement in its region, Local 435 provided for the jobs, but they had consistently refused R O labor for construction of the Del Lago Casino and to meet with the local – and in the end gave the , Y Resort in Waterloo, New York, beginning in early N labor away to non-union workers. O EW 2016. The $440-million project was completed Of course, there were many recent victories on February 1, 2017, with union laborers working Y and importantR projects for Local 435, as well, for Wilmorite Construction. such as theO Project Labor Agreement secured C EW HESTER, N L L LOCA 435 LOCA 435

R R O K O K C R C R H O H O ES Y ES Y TER, NEW TER, NEW Since January 2016, Local 435 laborers addition of a seven-story-high building under LOCA have also been helping to replace the historic, the second private Project Labor Agreement in L 4 140-year old Portageville Viaduct railroad the Rochester area. The new wing is expected 3 bridge in Letchworth State Park with a new, to open in 2020. 5 $71-million, 483-foot-arch span that will significantly enhance the southern tier corridor All the while, as technology has been for the Norfolk Southern Railway Company. yet another factor in dwindling the local’s Working for contractor American Bridge, the membership down to about 700 laborers in laborers have been employed since January 2018, the triumphs Local 435 has enjoyed and 2016 on construction of the new bridge as the challenges it has endured have strengthened well as demolition of the existing bridge and the local’s determination. At 100 years old foundations, taking on essential tasks Lsuch as4 3in 52018, this is witnessed most recently not site work; blasting keyways for theA arch in the only in the local’s support for infrastructure canyon walls; micropile foundations;C concrete development in the Rochester area, but also its Local 435 laborers help build the 6,000-foot long tunnel under piers and abutments; site grading and ballast; proactive approach to resolving the competitive Lake Ontario for the new Webster Water Treatment Plant in 2012. O and final grading.L bidding wars frequently seen on big projects. With Local 435’s contributions, the new The local has also experienced a revitalization steel-arch bridge spanning the Genesee River of sorts within itself. As such, under Business will consist of three, 80-foot girder spans on Manager Kuntz the local has restarted its either end for a total length of 963 feet. The annual adult Christmas dinner-dance, its single-track bridge will have a ballast-filled children’s breakfast with Santa and a summer concrete deck and will sit 235 feet above the picnic for members. water when complete in the fall of 2018. The shared progressive vision and energy of Also slated for completion in October 2018 Local 435 throughout the counties of Genesee, after employing Local 435 laborers is the Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, renovated Rochester International Airport. Wayne, Wyoming and Yates that encompass The $63.4-million upgrade of the facility into its jurisdiction is further displayed in a host R a state-of-art airport includes a new entrance of additional activities, such as community canopy that is a major element of the laborers’ volunteer programs, voter-registration drives O job to support the project and will reduce and the education of potential members annual operational and maintenance costs. through the Rochester Careers in Construction Corps. It is its collective goal and conviction Local 435 is also involved with expansion of that drives such efforts that will also propel C Rochester General Hospital, a $265-million Local 435 into and through its next 100 years. H E ST K K ER OR R , N Y O EW Y RO The new Portageville Viaduct railroad bridge under construction in 2017 with the help of Local W 435 laborers, with theC 140-year-old span in the background. (Photo provided by Canam Group.) E HESTER, N L LOCA 435

R O K C R H O ES Y TER, NEW