Breaking News
Joint Board adds 700 new members in six Locals

Gary Bonadonna |
The Rochester Regional Joint Board (RRJB) has added some 700 new members in six Locals, manager Gary Bonadonna announced. ”It’s great to have these new members join us and to bring even further job and skill diversity to our Board,” Bonadonna emphasized. The new members, who had been in the Amalgamated Northeast Regional Joint Board (ANRJB), have just voted to affiliate with the Rochester Board.
The members work in the Glove Cities and Capital District areas in diverse jobs that include hide tanning and the production of leather goods; glove distribution; bedding manufacturing; a commercial laundry; and plastic bottle recycling.

Bob Bruse |
Bob Bruse represented the members of the six Locals as the ANRJB’s Glove Cities/Hudson District director. Bruse will continue to represent them as a business rep in the Rochester Board’s Albany District until his retirement late this year, when Greg Laskowski will become their rep. Here are details about the new Locals, their membership numbers, and where the members work:
Local 368 — 140 members work at the Robison & Smith commercial laundry in Gloversville.
Local 646-T — 45 members are employed at the Fownes Brothers glove distribution operation in Mayfield.
Local 976-T — 48 members work at UltrePET, an Albany company that recycles plastic bottles.
Local 1712 — 80 members work at five companies: Colonial Tanning, a deerskin tanner, and Wood & Hyde Leather Company, a leather finisher, both in Gloversville; Milligan & Higgins, a producer of hide and bone glues, Simco Leather, a deerskin tanner, and Carville National Leather, a leather finisher, all located in Johnstown.
Local 1714-T — 340 members are employed at Sealy Mattress in Green Island, making both box springs and mattresses.
Local 2486 — 40 members work at Grandoe Corporation, a glove distributor in Gloversville, and Swany America Corporation, which does similar work in Johnstown.
In recent years, five other Locals that had been represented by the ANRJB came into the RRJB through realignments in the international union. Local 3-T members at Schlegel Systems in Rochester came to the RRJB in 2003. In 2006, four more Locals came into the Joint Board — Local 701-T, representing workers at Interface Solutions in Fulton; Local 1822 members who work at Birdseye processing, also in Fulton; Local 1827 members working at Parker Hannifin in Marion; and Local 1947 members who work at Service Machine Company in Syracuse.
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