Two top airline labor leaders gathered last week for a St. Patrick’s Day lunch, a few days ahead of today’s holiday, to celebrate the union movement’s Irish and New York roots.
“The cause of labor in the cause of Ireland and Shin Fein,” said Lorcan Collins, an Irish historian and podcaster who attended the annual St. Patrick’s Day lunch at a midtown restaurant blocks from historic St. Patrick’s Church.
Collins rephrased a quote by James Connolly, a revered Irish labor leader whose picture overlooked the speakers’ area at the lunch. Connolly had said, “The cause of labor is the cause of Ireland and the cause of Ireland is the cause of labor.”
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, both spoke at the event. Both have Irish ancestry. AFA represents about 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, while TWU represents about 65,000 airlines workers at American, Southwest, JetBlue and Allegiant. (TWU has about 155,000 members, including about 43,000 New York City subway and bus workers.)
Speakers included labor leaders, leaders from Ireland and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, (R-Pa). Samuelsen extolled Fitzpatrick, even though he is a Republican. It was an indication that labor will cross party lines to back supportive candidates. “Sean’s Irish, but he’s a Republican,” Samuelsen said, noting that at times “The lines are blurred” between the parties.
The focus, however, was not on current politics, but rather on labor’s storied past in New York and on two historic figures, Connolly and Mike Quill. Connolly was executed by the British in 1916 for his advocacy of independence.
Quill fought for the Irish Republican Army, immigrated to New York – arriving on March 17, 1926 – and went to work as a night gate security man for the IRT, then an independent subway line. In 1934, he co-founded the TWU.
Quill battled antisemitism and racism. In 1939 he organized a rally against antisemitism in the South Bronx. Starting in the 1950s, He backed Martin Luther King Jr. In 1961, he invited King to address a TWU convention, despite strong opposition. King called him “a pioneer in race relations.”
In 2009, Samuelsen was elected to the first of three terms as president of TWU Local 100, the local Mike Quill started, before taking over as TWU international president in 2017. Many view Samuelsen as a sort of reincarnation of Quill, a fearless Irish advocate for labor with sense of humor, a confrontational approach to MTA bosses and a gift for conversation.
“John Samuelsen continues to emulate Mike Quill and James Connolly through his commitment to workers’ rights,” said Collins. “With Samuelsen at the wheel, the TWU is in safe hands as it drives towards one hundred years of organizing transport workers in the USA.”
Nelson, who wore a bright green shirt, sang a song entitled “Bread and Roses,” and recalled the role of women in labor history including during the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, known as the Bread and Roses strike, reflecting words from a pro-labor poem that was popular at the time.
Another speaker at the lunch was Eddie Boles, a New York Fire Department Captain, who invoked a more recent event in New York history, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He noted that union solidarity underscored the response to that event, in which 343 firefighters were killed. “New York City epitomizes labor in this country,” Boles said.