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Ahern leads NYC workers in tough times

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

It’s not that religious parallels don’t occasionally occur to the Brooklyn native Ahern, who was recently elected president of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for 1.5 million union members.
“When you sit back, it’s somewhat humbling to think that these are organizations that have continued on for over 100 years,” he said of some of the council’s affiliates. “There aren’t a lot of things in our world that last and have that type of institutional longevity, other than the church.”
Generally though, Ahern is rather more focused on the present and the immediate future. He has to be. He’s a busy man. When interviewed by the Echo one lunchtime recently, he’d just come from a meeting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
One fellow union leader explained why he likes Ahern representing the labor movement at such meetings behind closed doors. “Jack is an extraordinary guy. He has genuine leadership skills and a knack for bringing people together. He’s a quick study,” said Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO. “These attributes make him a perfect fit to lead the New York City Central Labor Council, particularly during these difficult economic times.”
They certainly are hard times, and frightening, too, for many people.
“It’s staggering to see there’s 7 percent unemployment in the city,” Ahern said. “It’s staggering to see there are a tremendous amount of working poor who are working below the poverty line.”
The main hope that the working poor have is to connect with the organized labor movement. However, the recent Bush administration, and some other administrations before it, did everything it could to stymie such links.
“Dignity of work, I think, is something that this society has forgotten. That, you know, there is dignity in going to work and doing a good job,” he said.
Instead, he said, society celebrates “those who’ve caught the curve in something that’s gone on with the market.”
Ahern and his colleagues have high hopes for the Employee Free Choice Act, something that, if passed by Congress, would expedite the claims of workers who are seeking union recognition.
The union leader, who is a member of the County Cork Association, said that most Irish people would instinctively support that right to organize and the right to free speech.
Both his father and his County Cork-born grandfather were carpenters. Indeed his grandfather, who came to New York in the late 19th century, was one of five brothers who were members of Local 608.
His maternal grandfather, a Reilly from Granard, Co. Longford, was a New York firefighter who died as the result of smoke inhalation. Ahern’s mother, who was 3 at the time, went back with her family to Longford and the family re-emigrated to America later on. And so the union leader considers himself the child of an immigrant.
Ahern was educated about the union movement at the dinner table and about most other things in Catholic schools near where he grew up in Flatbush — Holy Cross for elementary and Nazareth for secondary.
He’s not one of those who complains looking back about the nuns and brothers’ methods.
“I have to admit I didn’t get punished for half of the stuff I did, so it worked out very well,” Ahern said with a laugh.
In addition they got him to Brooklyn College. He dropped out in 1973, however, when a better opportunity came up.
Already a union member cleaning floors with the Board of Education, the college student decided to apply to join Local 30’s operating engineer apprenticeship program.
“From the day I took the test and was accepted into the program, it just all worked out,” he said. “I received a great education, which was paid for by the local.”
Ahern became active in campaigns from the beginning. “When an opening came up I was asked by the executive board and by Bill Treacy to come and work directly for the union.” He was just 24.
The County Tipperary-born Treacy was then Local 30’s chief executive officer or business manager. “He was a very capable labor leader, a very forward thinking guy,” said Ahern, who himself became business manager in 1999.
“I enjoy going to work every day. I couldn’t envision a day when I would get up and not go in to work. At times the work is very, very challenging, at times it’s depressing, quite frankly. You don’t win every battle,” he said. “There are employers who despite our best efforts still take advantage of people. There’s a lot of heartache out there, unfortunately. But even on those toughest days, I wouldn’t trade my job for anybody’s else in the world.”
“We arise through difficulties” is the Ahern family motto, he noted. “It sums up a lot of what Irish immigrants felt. Obama paraphrased it in his [economic] speech [in February],” he said. “But it’s very much true of the labor movement — we don’t always win, we don’t always get what we want, but we’re there representing our members. We’re fighting to get what’s best for our members and for all working people.
“The Labor Movement has taken some blows but is tremendously resilient,” Ahern said. “We’re relentless.”

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