by Jaime Franchi
Organized labor is the bedrock of Long Island’s workforce. The union movement quite literally paved the way for access to healthcare, fair wages and protections for workers to gain access to the middle-class lifestyle promised to those who work hard and play fair. After World War II, masses migrated to Long Island’s newly formed suburbs where highway systems and local roads, bridges and innovative infrastructure were needed to accommodate the city-dwellers who decided to call Long Island home. The beaches provided more than recreation: the plentiful, pure sand became the primary element needed to form the concrete and asphalt that underpins our streets and our structures. And the workforce that mixed, laid, and built that foundation were our collective great grandparents who blazed our paths by recognizing the value of collective bargaining. Today, our union leaders carry the mantle for the generations to come.
John Duffy, Tom Gesualdi, George S. Truicko, III, and Anthony Villa lead the charge on Long Island. They have their jobs cut out for them—not only do they need to protect and maintain the standards for their members, but they have to fight against encroaching threats from the promises of non-union shops while spreading the word to those who have been traditionally excluded from union representation.
John Duffy is the Business Manager and Treasurer for Local 138, Operating Engineers. For him, the role is an honor. “In an era when ‘good enough’ is acceptable, strong leadership is required to confront those who would replace our union expertise with the cheap expediency of mediocrity, or worse—dangerous incompetence,” he says. “I am proud to be part of a union that is a strong and dynamic driving force behind the progress that moves our bi-county region forward,” Duffy said. “But that position also allows me to be an advocate for union work, to be a steward of the benefits that protect thousands of our union families, and to encourage and recruit a new generation of Long Islanders to acquire the skills required for Local 138 membership.”
According to the union leaders interviewed, recruitment is one of several challenges. “Some of the biggest challenges are competing with non-union employers to obtain jobs and to solicit new members,” echoed George Truicko, Assistant Business Manager of the Road & Heavy Construction Laborers Local 1298 of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. “Unfortunately, we have multiple challenges, however, like any other challenge that we’ve faced over the years, we remain persistent and confident that said challenge will be met head on and overcome,” said Anthony Villa, Business Manager for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Local Union 290 and also the Local Union President. “One of our main challenges is the competition we face when dealing with unscrupulous contractors. Not only does this skew the playing field during the bidding process, but it also gives way to breaches in safety, misclassification, compensation ambiguity and little to no training that may lead to injury and/or a fatality.
“Far too many ‘bad actors’ are bidding projects right in our own backyard omitting benefits, compensation, pension and more often than not, paying cash to their employees,” Villa continues. “Same contractors are not providing their employees with any type of training and are treating them as a 1099 employee to escape payment of taxes. That being said, honest, law-abiding contractors who are bidding on the same work who will ultimately employ local, hard-working union tradespeople, are being told their bids are too high. At what point will select developers realize that we are not too high, they are far too low?”
Fair practices are critical to industry and to a region that employs so many union families. “The reality is union families can be found in almost every Long Island neighborhood,” says Duffy. “When once upon a time you would say that about Grumman employees, it is now organized labor that has taken that place of pride on Long Island. Local 138 and our fellow construction trades ensure that our members are respected for their contributions to the economy, their communities, and our shared quality of life.”
Many union leaders are proudly second and third-generation union families, having grown up in homes provided by union labor and leadership, including Tom Gesualdi and George Truicko. Gesualdi of Teamsters Local 282, told Road Warriors that his grandfather was a charter member of the local in 1915. “A lot of family history,” he says. Gesualdi, who is President and Principal officer for Local 282, says his goal is to “get members to have a middle-class lifestyle,” by offering wages, pensions, medical benefits. “There is a divide between the rich and poor on Long Island.” He wants to help build back the middle class so that members can retire with dignity with a pension, annuity, the ability to pay for school for their children. “Basically, we want the middle class back on the map,” he says. “It’s being eroded. Labor Unions are one of the avenues to achieve a middle-class lifestyle. It creates careers instead of jobs. The cost of living is extremely high on Long Island. You need to earn wages that allow us to live here. I don’t know how construction people without unions have homes and can live here with no retirement or pensions.”
“As road construction is on the rise on Long Island, labor unions provide Long Islanders with opportunities for employment,” says Truicko. “The labor unions provide apprenticeship programs which offer a wide range of opportunities to learn specific skills to obtain employment. The work would include benefits such as health, annuity, and pension. Additionally, the labor unions protect the Long Island community by ensuring that the operating procedures and safety standards are being followed for each road construction project.”
Building that road to a better life takes leadership at all levels, including the advocacy of our elected officials. Long Island’s labor force relies on the support of the voting members of our state and local representatives to advance the interests of labor and the protections they provide. “From seeing apprenticeship programs utilized and enforced to seeing unscrupulous contractors prosecuted and exposed, we do our utmost to ensure a safe, lawful and level playing field on private as well as public projects and it is the tireless work of multiple elected officials that bring our vision to fruition and recognize the importance that these legislations hold on numerous facets,” says Villa. “Candidates from both sides of the political aisle regularly arrive at our union hall to state their positions, hear our concerns, and outline their public works agenda going forward,” Duffy states. “They recognize that an endorsement by organized labor is not to be taken lightly and securing it must be accompanied by actions that support their words.”
According to Gesualdi, “Local 282 supports both sides of the aisle as long as they support union officials. We’re not democrats or republicans – we’re pro-labor. We don’t blindly go to one side or the other—we look to who supports our cause.” That is the cause of the worker. To recruit, train, protect, and promote. When done right, the ripple effect expands to the entire region: the families, businesses and generations that follow. “In an era when we as a nation are questioning ourselves on so many levels, there shouldn’t be any doubt about the role of Local 138,” says Duffy. “Look around. We built this island. And we have much more to do.”