Editor’s Note: Two longtime members reflect on some of the more enduring principles of BAC membership – the responsibility and satisfaction of “passing it on,” and gratitude for those who came before.

Preserve the Benefit of the Union

I will try to be brief. Age 94, loved bricklaying with a passion, and studied architecture for two years. I’m a draftsman, and chose bricklaying as a career. I was a Union officer 27 years (Vice President, Treasurer). I did all types of brickwork, coke oven, stacks, structural clay tile. “Pin a rose on me” for laying a 250-brick stoop at 89. Never fired for not doing my job. A unionist always, I preached and picketed. My advice, finally for those entering the trade: Do your work as well or better than the person next to you. And preserve the benefit of your union—do as much, if not more, than that person.

Yours in Unity,
Name Withheld by Request

A Member of Local 1 NY (formerly Brooklyn 9)

P.S.--If I earn a gift of a BAC shirt, please present, with my compliments, the same, to some deserving apprentice.
Editor’s Note: Please be assured your wishes will be honored.

It’s Not a Gift Until You Give It Away
Learning From the Past, Protecting the Future

Last May 13, 2003, I received my Gold Card, my lifetime membership Pin, and a gold watch as a 50-year member of the BAC. I joined the Union in 1953 as an apprentice member of the former Local 46 Summit, NJ. In 1954 and 1955, I represented Local 46 in both apprentice contests for all the Locals in New Jersey. I tied for second in 1954, and tied for first in 1955, which qualified me to go to Buffalo, NY for the final competition.

I did not go to Buffalo, but I received an Award of Merit from the International Union for being an outstanding apprentice for 1955, after only two years in the trade.

Gaetano Botte, a Gold Card member of Local 4 NJ.

I’m a descendent of generations of masons from the South of Italy. At 22, I emigrated from Italy, and as every other immigrant, I had to overcome many obstacles, learn a new language, new customs and raise a young family, while learning the trade after serving four years in the Navy of my native country.

Through night schooling, I learned to read blue prints and how to estimate materials needed and cost for masonry projects, allowing me to become a foreman as early as 1961, working steady in that capacity until 1993.

Now 73, ten years retired, I’m enjoying my life worry free, thanks to the two Union pensions earned during my 40 years as brickmason and foreman.

From the older members I learned what it had been like to work without the Union. I listened and also read enough to understand how fortunate I was not to experience such exploitation…[the conditions they] were subjected to until the workers organized and [got] a decent day’s wage for a productive day’s work, better conditions in the workplace and above all, the dignity they deserved.

Someone once said, “a worker without a Union is nothing.” I could not agree more. I think that the young rank and file of the present Union should be made aware that the struggle...what the Union has gained over the years is not to be taken for granted.

A hearty thanks to all the members that helped me in the beginning of my working days, and to the executive ones in my old Local and the new, whose help and concern is deeply appreciated.

Gaetano Botte
Member of Local 4 NJ (and former Local 3 NJ)
Springfield, NJ