President
Barry Leads March
As New York Labor Steps Out
November 1998 IBEW Journal
 "The
line of march stretches farther than our eyes can see today. It
reaches far back across the years to the countless others that have
graced the streets of New York over the past 116 years...Their spirit
is marching with us today."
With these words IBEW International President J.J. Barry
linked the 1998 New York City Labor Day Parade with the first such
march in 1882 and the generations of union leaders and members who
have proudly carried the labor movement forward over the years.
President Barry, serving as the Grand Marshal of this year’s
parade — the oldest and largest Labor Day parade in the United
States -- delivered the day’s keynote address at the reviewing
stand after leading an estimated 200,000 marchers up New York’s
famous Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 73rd
Street. IBEW Local 3 was the most prominent union
 in
the parade, turning out some 20,000 members to participate. Prominent
in the front ranks of the parade were Brian McLaughlin, president
of the New York City Central Labor Council and a member of Local
3; Edward Cleary, president of the New York State Federation of
Labor and a member of Local 3; Local 3 Business Manager and former
IBEW International Treasurer Thomas Van Arsdale; IBEW
International Secretary-Treasurer Edwin D. Hill; IBEW International
Vice Presidents Lawrence Rossa and Frank Carroll and IBEW
IEC Members Joseph McCafferty and Paul Ward.
The parade itself, held on Saturday, September 12, capped several
day’s of activities  during
Labor Day week in New York celebrating the spirit and history of
organized labor in the city. On September 10, President Barry addressed
Local 3's membership meeting in Queens, and later spoke at a reception
in his honor in Manhattan. Earlier in the day, President Barry traveled
to suburban Westchester County where September 10 was proclaimed
J.J. Barry Day. Richard Wishnie, a county legislator and assistant
to the chairman of the Joint Industry Board of the Electrical Industry
in New York, presented President Barry with a copy of the proclamation.
On September 11, President Barry was among several speakers at
an event marking the contributions of the labor movement to the
history of New York, which is celebrating the centennial of the
uniting of its five boroughs into one city. A special traveling
photo exhibit on New York’s working people was unveiled at
the ceremony and will be on display at various sites throughout
the city. "The real success of the labor movement," President
Barry told the crowd of labor dignitaries and city officials, "is
told through the small victories that take place every day in every
corner of this vast city."
 Another
highlight of the week was the dedication of New York’s Union
Square as a national historic landmark, as designated by the National
Park Service. Since the early part of the 20th century,
Union Square was a popular site for workers’ rallies and later
political protests and demonstrations of many kinds. President Barry
spoke at the dedication ceremony, which featured members of actors’
unions portraying historical figures from the city’s past and
attracted New York’s leading political figures including Governor
George Pataki, U.S. Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Alphonse
D’Amato, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, several members of the New
York Congressional delegation and others.
The festivities concluded on Sunday, September 13,
with the celebration of the traditional Labor Day Mass at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral. John Cardinal O’Connor of New York celebrated the
Mass at which President Barry delivered one of the Scripture readings.
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