Contributions in memory of George Turner are being accepted at North East Rottweiler Rescue and Referral, Inc. PO Box 510, Portsmouth, NH 02871; as well as at the American Legion Post #146, Main Street, South Bethlehem, Ct 06751.

For a map to the Woodbury Funeral Home JH

South Boston - home of Boston's Local 7 - is changing before our eyes. Jobs are breaking all around town as Southie is an area that many want to move into due to its proximity to Downtown Boston and the ocean. Two ongoing jobs are the McCallen Building (top left) and "The Lofts at 36 A Street" (top right). These jobs are right across the street from each other and signal an aggressive move by local developers to bring an abundance of new high-end housing opportunities to Southie's Broadway Station area...

To see several pictures of these two projects JH

Local 7's Joe Gibbons turned in the last steward's report today. Some of Joe's friends, led by the JAC's Maude Farrell, held an impromptu retirement celebration at the Apprentice Office. Joe's presence and work ethic will be sorely missed, but his retirement is certainly well earned after 40 years of hard work. Good luck, Joe. Don't be a stranger!

To see pictures of the luncheon feting Joe for all his hard work JH

Local 7's Gary DeSousa suffered a life-threatening injury in 1999. Few gave him any chance of recovering, but in true "Road Warrior" fashion he is fighting back. A group of friends recently got together with Gary to catch up on all the old war stories - which, if you knew the Road Warrior, were limitless...

To see pictures of Gary's friends honoring his presence JH

Members from Local 7 and Local 424, working for Blakeslee Precast, recently topped out a huge parking garage in the South End...

To see pictures of the last fascia panel being (signed and) erected JH

Local 7 opened up their union hall for members and their families for the second time on a recent Sunday morning to bring everyone up to speed on the recent change in the Pension and Health Insurance funds...

To see pictures of the meeting JH

Local 7 BA Mike Durant forwarded some pictures of work that HB Welding is performing up at Reading, High School...

To see pictures of the job JH

Local 474 members returned to the classroom recently for an OSHA 30 Hour course...

To see pictures of the members in class JH

Local 474 recently erected another Wal-Mart in New Hampshire. The first one was in Epping. This one is in Rochester, NH and the project was done by Arctic Construction...

To see more pictures of the job JH

Local 37 members recently topped out the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Rhode Island...

To see pictures of the job JH

Our apologies to Local 7 BA Tom Shea (pictured top right above in his military dress uniform at a recent "Helmets to Hardhats" ceremony). Tom had forwarded various pictures from around Worcester a couple of weeks ago that got overlooked and were never posted...

To see the pictures JH

Our apologies to Roy Coulombe of Local 37 who forwarded pictures of several jobs in Local 37's area last month that got overlooked...
 

To see HB Welding doing a pre-fab at URI JH

Local 7 members continue the dismantling process at Logan. BA Mike Durant forwarded more pictures over the weekend to show off Local 7 members removing a 200 foot long boom that weighed in at 130,000 lbs.

To see more pictures of the job JH

Local 7 President Paul Lynch is posting the following two announcements. He is asking that as many members as possible participate in these two worthwhile events. If you have any questions, please call Paul at the hall (1-800-730-IRON [4766]) and he will get back to you with any information you need...

Local 7 members will spend the next two weeks on the "night shift," dismantling a huge 650T Demag crane at Logan Airport. Mike Durant was kind enough to forward some pictures of the initial phase, which will take approximately two weeks. When completed the gang will then turn their sights on the East gantry where they will repeat this task...(We have to get a better flash for the camera!)

To see pictures of the job JH

Thanks to Kevin Byrnes of Local 424 for forwarding some pictures of our brothers and sisters from Connecticut in action...
To see larger versions of the pictures JH

Local 7 members, working for BRI out of Rhode Island, recently topped out the new Everett High School project. Many city and state dignitaries showed up to watch our members perform the ironworking tradition of erecting the final beam into place. Congratulations to BRI and to all our members who brought in another job to a successful conclusion...

To see pictures of the ceremony and related activity JH

New addition to our extended family! Local 7's Shawn Cleary and his wife Michele recently welcomed their new daughter Mikayla Cleary into their family... Congratulations and best of luck to the Shawn and his two favorite gals!

To see a larger picture of the lovely Mikayla JH

For any Local 7 JIW who has yet to get certified, now's the chance. This is the last class before Labor Day, so take advantage of this opportunity...

If you wish to sign up, contact the training office @ 617-268-0707 for more specifics...

NOTE: There is a $20 sign-up fee which will be returned upon successful completion of the class, so you must appear in person to register...

The BOSTON HERALD, widely supported by the members of this organization who purchase it each day (perhaps we should orchestrate a boycott due to Buckingham's complete insensitivity to a serious issue), is doing some serious back pedaling from Virginia Buckingham's misguided opinion. Yesterday they printed our pal, Jimmy Coyle's, feelings on the issue.

PS: No call from old Ginny Buckingham yet insofar as taking a look at a real training program...NEVER LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY, Ginny!

Our friend, Chuck Raso, of the Bricklayers Union, never one to shy away from an attack on the trade union movement, was featured in today's Herald, explaining to old Virginia that death on the jobs - union or non-union - is not something to exploit or to use as fodder to further unrelated goals. We thank Chuck for his unyielding vigilance.

Also, there is an official response from our Massachusetts Building Trades President Joe Dart.  As usual, Joe has eloquently framed the argument with FACTS, so Virginia will probably encounter some difficulty in digesting and/or avoiding it.

To read Joe Dart's response JH

 Our offer still stands, Virginia. If you want to see training, c'mon down! No appointment necessary! We've got nothing to hide and plenty to be proud of!

The Daniel Marr & Sons Company is erecting another pre-engineered metal building in Roxbury for BFI (waste industry) and Suffolk Construction (GC). While it is not as large as the one they did for the same owner last year, it's good to see our guys working in this burgeoning pre-engineered industry and we thank the Marr Company for contracting the work...

To see pictures of the job JH

Jay...can you post that I need two (2) innershield workers for the Springfield area ASAP.....I am also looking for a certified mig or tig aluminum welder for Northfield Mountain powerhouse starting on Monday 4-17-06 lasting about 4 weeks. ALSO: 1- stick welder; 1 miscellaneous metals worker with welding experience and the appropriate papers; and 2 or 3 structural hands.

Can you post that there are room available in the area for $40 per night and there are opportunities for the buddy-up system on these jobs. Rebar workers needed soon also.....please man YOUR jurisdiction.....FIORE

Representatives of the District Council recently spent several days in Washington DC at the Building and Construction Trades Department's (BCTD) Legislative Conference.

The Council representatives attended the conference each morning and a variety of workshops and industry related meetings in the afternoons. On Tuesday, April 4th, they went to Capitol Hill for meetings with a number of United States Congressmen and Senators.

On April 5th, the Massachusetts delegation held a breakfast and most of the congressional delegation attended. Brother Steve Lynch, the representative from the 9th Congressional District in Massachusetts, was present, and later spoke at the general session (but we had a camera malfunction and missed out on the photo opportunity!).

Senator John McCain of Arizona - who has never been one of labor's stronger advocates on most national issues - not only accepted an invitation to speak, but later took several questions from the audience of over two thousand delegates. It got slightly heated during his speech, and at one point he threatened to walk out, but the delegates let him know that they wanted to hear what he had to say regarding immigration. He was tough to pin down on other labor issues and, again, has never been a strong supporter of our movement, but a lot of delegates gave him credit for having the respect to show up, unlike most of the anti-worker/anti-union operatives that currently saturate our nation's Capital. 

To see pictures (over 100 photos) of the conference JH

In any event, Buckingham lamented that if the general contractor had been "open shop" the unions would have "screamed" about the accident at Emerson College. The open shop Queen is so confused (despite previously working for the ABC) that she wasn't even aware that the general contractor WAS already an open shop operative!

She also doesn't seem to understand the role of unions, as it is our job and our responsibility to rail against unsafe conditions and contractors who practice them. Our silence should enrage newspapers, but it continues to be our VOICE that does the trick!

I have taken the time to respond to Buckingham's allegations. I have also challenged her to come with me to visit one of our training centers, but I am not holding my breath in anticipation of a return call as I am, after all, only a peon - and she is from the Weld faction of Massachusetts royalty (a girl can dream!).

In any event, I walked approximately 200 feet from my office, where Local 7 had a class of apprentices in for a regularly scheduled (this is how it's done, Virginia) forty-hour training session, where I took a few pictures. Perhaps Virginia will begin to understand how the game is really played when it comes to training in the construction industry if she sees the pictures - "perhaps" being the operative word, as some people can't see the forest because there are too many trees in the way. (Look at what she still believes about PLA's!)

Local 7 recently ran an OSHA 10 Hour Certification Course at their sub-office in Springfield, MA. Safety is the key in our business and kudos go out to all the members who took the time to show up and get upgraded, as well as to the teachers and staff from our top notch training program who make it all happen (as usual!)...

To see pictures of the class JH