The skirl of bagpipes and the staccato of stepdancers set the stage for an evening of corned beef and cabbage, conviviality and politics March 9 at the union’s annual Irish Heritage Celebration.

The hundreds of participants heard from DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders, Deputy Administrators Zachary Ramsey and Dennis Sullivan, and U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley of the 7th Congressional District in Queens and the Bronx.

Mr. Saunders spoke of the many Irish labor leaders, from the 1800s to AFSCME President Gerald McEntee and AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, who he said “worked to build a better world for all working women and men.”

One of the “great traditions of DC 37,” he said, involves “sharing the diversity of our cultures, just as we share the common goal of building a better life for everyone in our city.”

The immigrant experience
Mr. Ramsey said the experience of exploitation that faced Irish immigrants when they first came to the United States had “drawn them to the union movement, because unions opened doors, stood up to injustice and in solidarity, gave strength to all workers.”

Mr. Sullivan introduced Mr. Crowley as “a very special friend of DC 37 who votes 100 percent for the issues that matter to working families.”

“Because we had the White House stolen from us, we need DC 37, AFSCME and the labor movement more than ever,” said Mr. Crowley. Building schools in New York City, providing prescription drug coverage for seniors and paying down the national debt would all be better uses of federal funds than President Bush’s “speculative” tax cut, he argued.

The Irish Heritage Committee’s annual awards were presented by Committee Chair and Local 1322 President John Townsend and Vice Chair Kathy Fitzgerald of the Health and Security Plan.

The honors went to Mr. Saunders; Sister Mary O’Connor, a city Chaplain and Local 299 member, who delivered the invocation for the evening’s activities; and Carol Angelino, a 23-year veteran DC 37 representative.

The Jerry Piper Band, the Tir Na Gael School of Dancing and the Knights of Columbus Pipe Band, which includes several members of Sewage Treatment Workers Local 1320, provided entertainment.