Laborers' Local 435 Anniversary Gala
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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.