I just found out a close friend of mine Jimmy Richardelli passed away. I would like to express my condolences to his family. Jimmy was rough around the edges, but anyone who knew him, will tell you you'll never meet a nicer guy and a bigger heart than Jimmy's. It just reminds me, that the friendships you make in this business are some of the best you'll ever have, I'll miss Jimmy very much

I would like to say congratulations to everyone who ran except you know who,It was a very close election  and many were sad with the results and that made me sad.We are one and I hope that our newly elected president extends the olive branch to all who ran and  to all who supported those candidates.we have been split too long.Some of those candidates need to get back to work,its been way too long,get rid of a new helper and help a 10,20 ,30 year member.The election got very ugly,and some things were just uncalled for.Was there really a rat in jersey? because that was just low.We are all members,yet many with different opinions don't feel that way,so I am looking forward to a  new beginning,I wish we would get rid of tickets,its such a brutal friendship costing caveman way to get elected.I also don't like the polls in jersey.I would not  mind alternating an entire election in each place so that  all members have a chance to be close to the polls but  the two places just feels like a contest,We have just been split for so long,and the retiree's,why can't they vote? why would you cast such wisdom away?President legotte,I ask of you to extend that olive branch and bring all members together,those who voted for you and those who did not,I hope you all take it serious how close this election was.The members  including myself are sick  of being ruled by a czar,Ray I wish you well,but dude you need a vacation,Let's get back to a time where  vindictiveness  is not worth any ones time,Forgiveness  is what a brother  does,and negotiations  are first and for-most.I have to say at the  end of the night I threw my say no  to danbo shirt  to him,he caught it and he laughed and life went on,and that's when this post hit me. Can we all just laugh at the end of the day?Congrats to row C,and congrats to row B,believe it or not Row B you all made a difference,you made  members come out, the members sent a message,it was truly a democracy,And now we shall see if they heard it.I don't want to be on this side ,or that side,I just  want to be proud of local one,proud of pro- labor,proud to stand with the  other trades,we are too small to be this split, Let the healing begin. yours in solidarity always your twisted sister Liz.

    To begin with, I would just like to say that sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.  Another way of looking at it is, sometimes you're the pidgeon, and sometimes you're the statue.   The elections are over, and today is the tomorrow that you thought about yesterday.  I would like to congradulate the members who were elected to office for the next three years, and to offer my sincerest condolences to those who gave it their best shot but lost.   It is extremely important, for both sides, the ROW B guys and the ROW C guys to put their differences aside and work together for the betterment of the union as a whole.   Working together, as you should, you can all turn this union around, but it will take a determined team effort on all of your part's.  As I had said in my 6/20/07 posting, you can't count on SOMEONE ELSE anymore.  Its a matter of sink or swim.  Its your decision.  If you enjoy your work, your pay, and your benefits, think about how they were obtained?  To help you, I'll try to recall some of the wonderful people that fought for these things that so many now take for granted, like they actually had a right to them.  It was brothers like "Iron Mike" Carfly, a foreman on the Time & Life Building where I first started and became a member of Local 1.  Then there was "Rails" Carlsen, who moved to Hollywood, Florida and became president of that Local, a position that forty some odd years later his son now holds.  There was also guys like "Red Shirt" Wallace, "Bubble Nose" Borry, "Harry The Horse" York, "Bathless" McNally, and many other nicknames that escape me right now like "Sweetsie", "The Chief", "Mongo", "The Animal", "The Fonz", and one for Willie Moore that I'd get in trouble if I mentioned it today.  Of course there was "Hushpuppy", me.  I also remember dedicated brothers like Ray Bender, Harry Shields, Ed Halpin, Huey Miles, Joe Kelly, Tommy McGoldrick, and former union presidents George Koch, Vinny Watson, Karl Stork and to me, the best of the lot, John Green Sr. Its a pity that characters like us couldn't get together a write a book, each one of us with our own chapter telling of our experiences in Local 1.  It would be a best seller for sure.  On a sad note I also remember some of our brothers that took the plunge, down the hatch.  Terry O'Neil, doing someone a favor while they drank their coffee, was checking the rigging on the ninteenth floor when the counterweight frame that was being hoisted caught on a wood frame.  The hoist cable came up in front of Terry and went overhead to a snatch block and down the hatch in back of him.  The "rusted" bent up  3/8 sling holding the block broke and the cable came down and caught Terry on the back, pushing him into the hatch, down ninteen floors.  Then there was Pete Fanning, I think his name was Pete, he went down on the Sarrett City Job.  Pete Gannon left our job, coming back the next day to pick up his tools, and telling us that the way they were working on that job someone was going to get killed.  Unfortunately, Pete predicted his own death.  The platform that he was working on collapsed and he dropped out of sight.  Jim Jensen, a gentleman if there ever was one, was working on the Pan-Am building putting weights in the counterweight frame.  Unbeknown to Jim, or the two helpers with him, someone had moved one of the 4X6's underneath the scaffold.  While they were moving around the scaffold shifted and collapsed.  One of the helpers, his arm wrapped around the rail, grabbed Jim.  The helper was halfway into the hatch, and Jim, makes my eyes tear up telling this, looked at the young helper and said, according to the helper himself, "let me go kid, or I'll take you with me."  The kid let go and Jim took that final plunge, the one that in the back of our minds we all dread.  The helper, from what I was told had a nervous breakdown and later quit the business.  There were others, and God forbid there may be more in the future.  But the last one that I like to mention happened on the South Tower of the World Trade Center which was my second home for seven years.  It was just one day after our seven month strike.  We were fighting fabrication.  We were glued together as one, its called "unity", and no matter how bad we were hurting, we held out, and we won.  I was proud of our union back then, of our members.  Anyway, on that fateful day, an elevator operator named "Moe" Moholly, passed me by, sayin his "hello," and then, walking into the wrong car on the 44th floor, stepped into space.  Another brother gone.  The overall foreman that ran the job on the Twin Towers was Frank "The Silver Fox" Pike, and the lead foremen in each tower was Tommy Donavan in the North Tower and Walter Bilski in the South Tower.  Walter recently passed away.  Gene Labouseur (?) one of the foremen under Walter also passed away a while back.   I have always made an attempt to pay my last respects to a deceased brother.  Now, because the death of a member is no longer placed in the obituary section of The Daily News, as it had been for as long as I can remember, I find out, too late, about a members passing when I receive the IUEC Journal.  I would like to personally thank brother Duffy for keeping the members informed on important matters, and in this instance, the passing of a member.  I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, and I am just beginning to learn how to work this damn new computer contraption.  I bought a book, "Computers For Dummies."  I read it twice, and I'm still a dummy. I don't know how I got off on this morbid topic, except to remind each and every member, no matter which department you work in, to be extra careful when you're working in or near the hatch.  Practice safety, your families will appreciate it, and love you even more.   There were numerous  issues presented during the election, some true, some maybe not, but a lot of the ones that I read, being legitimate, should be addressed.  Never mind who brought it forth, or why, address it, resolve it, and put it to rest.  If its in the best interest of the membership then it should, it must, be acted upon.  Don't sweep it under the rug like it doesn't exist.  The last thing that I like to request, is for someone to find the solution to the members apathy, and how to make them want to attend monthly meetings.  If I was still active, and allowed to, I would make a motion every third month to raise all of the officers salaries 25%, or lease more expensive cars, increase their spending allowance, or raise the dues another $100.  Of course none of these things would ever pass (???), but I think the hall would be packed to the rafters.  Anyway, God bless each and everyone of you, and all of our departed brothers and sisters.  Here is something that a chaplain in the United States Senate once said, and its something for each member to think about.  He said, I am only one, but I am one.  I can't do everything, but I can do something.  And what I can do, that which I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I shall do."  Maybe the correspondent to the IUEC Journal could include it in his next article for the entire membership of the International to think, and perhaps, memorize.

I would like to congratulate all the members of ROW C you guys ran a clean campaign, and the members of this Union spoke....I would especially like to congratulate my BROTHER Lenny Leggotte, great job,  Dad would be proud

I would like to thank all the brothers and sisters of local#1 WHO CAME OUT TO VOTE. Thank you for your support, you brothers and sisters are awesome. Congratulations to all who won....

CONGRATULATIONS TO ROW C