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Looking Back

Last Updated: March, 2009
Each Quarter, Looking Back takes you into the Reflections' archives for a look at the stories making news 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years ago.

2nd Quarter, 1985

Joint Board members lobby

Six Joint Board members from Rochester and Utica took part in a recent program in Washington aimed at teaching them and scores of other Amalgamated union members lobbying techniques. Those skills will be used to fight legislation detrimental to workers and laws that support them. The six Joint Board participants at the COPE Legislative Institute were Michael Bruni, Carmen Caruso, Leonard Chrisler, Frank Dellefave, Vickey Convertino and Charles Morawiec.

2nd Quarter, 1990

Shop rep named

Jeannie Reitz

Jeannie Reitz, who has been active in Local 14-A for some time, has been elected a shop rep. She will complete the unexpired term of Gary Bonadonna, who recently was named business rep for the Local. Reitz has served as Bonadonna’s back-up shop rep nine years. She joined Xerox in 1970 and a few years later was elected to the 14-A executive board, which she has served on ever since. She was also elected as a Joint Board delegate this year. (Editor’s note: Reitz is retiring this year [2010] after 40 years of service; see the Spring issue of Refections for a profile of her and her career.)

Cotraccia gets new job

Fred Cotraccia

Fred Cotraccia has been named general shop chairman of the six Locals at Hickey-Freeman. His career with the union started in 1956 when he went to work at Timely Clothing. Within a few years, he joined Hickey-Freeman, where he spent most of his career as a presser. Cotraccia has been active in the union since the 1960’s and became a shop rep in the canvas shop in the 1970’s. He has subsequently held a number of posts in the Locals at Hickey’s and has also been a Joint Board delegate for a decade.

2nd Quarter, 1995

Historic merger set

Gary Bonadonna

An historic labor merger will take place in June, bringing together the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Joint Board director Gary Bonadonna said the merger will create a new 355,000-member union called UNITE — the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. The director noted that the new union “will be a far stronger and more influential national organization that will benefit all of us.”

Doris Heath Retiring

Doris Heath

Doris Heath, the manager of the Western New York Joint Board (WNYJB), is retiring after a 29-year career. She had served a number of years as assistant manager of the Buffalo Joint Board—Clothing union and was elected its manager in 1985. Two years later, she helped orchestrate the merger of area clothing and textile workers into the WNYJB. Then, in 1993, Heath led the WNYJB into a merger with the Rochester Joint Board that created today’s Rochester Regional Joint Board.

2nd Quarter, 2000

Union leaders avert layoffs

Union leaders have averted layoffs at Xerox by negotiating a voluntary severance package with substantial financial incentives. As a result of those significant incentives, some 400 Local 14-A members have taken the package, Gary Bonadonna and Jeannie Reitz announced. Bonadonna, the Joint Board director, and Reitz, the Local’s business rep, negotiated the package.

For a 30-year member, the severance includes a full year salary continuance, plus a $5,600 lump sum payment — a far cry from the company’s original plan to close down several production lines, move the work to England and lay off the affected 14-A members.

New pharmacy phone system

The Hillman Center pharmacy announced a new automated phone system that will take patrons’ refill information and route it to pharmacists for filling. The new system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which will provide the convenience of phoning in refills at any time.

2nd Quarter, 2005

Local 14-B okays historic pact

Greg Laskowski

Local 14-B members working at Weyerhaeuser Paper in Rochester have ratified a six-year contract — the longest in the the union’s history, business rep Greg Laskowski announced. The agreement will bring annual wage hikes and a significant improvement in health care options and company contributions to the pension plan.

Local 471 organizes in Plattsburgh: Local 471 has organized some 120 Sodexho workers who provide food services at SUNY Plattsburgh, Joint Board manager Gary Bonadonna announced. The Board also represents food service workers at a number of other colleges and universities, including SUNY Albany and SUNY Binghamton.