My Name is Jim Jensen

I originally made this page for Labor Day, 1997 and was about to discontinue it at the end of September. My family and friends suggested I should make it a permanent page to tell about myself and the labor movement. At first my thoughts were negative, but I see so much bad publicity being fed to the public about Union Labor that I have since decided that there should be a place on the web where people can learn that labor leaders for the most part are honest and that the rank-and-file working man has to be united in order to have a voice in his future and the future of America.

Ever since my discharge from the Navy in 1954 I owe everything I am or ever will be to the American Labor Movement. I became a union Ironworker in The International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers, Local Union Number 373 on September 9, 1954. Ironworkers are the branch of the construction industry that erect the structural steel frameworks of buildings. We also build bridges and place and tie the steel bars used for concrete reinforcing. We do the moving and placing of heavy machinery and other heavy industrial components. This branch of our business is known as "Rigging". We also install most of the fancy, ornamental items you see on and in office buildings and hotels, such as the curtain wall on the outside of the buildings, the beautiful handrail you see on the inside, the elevator doors, mail chutes and just about any other fancy metal work you see in these buildings. Over the years, I have worked on jobs in all branches of our industry as an apprentice, a journeyman a foreman and as superintendent.

On the Local Union side I have been elected as Sergeant-at Arms, Executive Board member, Business Agent and Business Manager. I was also elected as Secretary/Treasurer of the Ironworkers District Council of Northern New Jersey, President of the Middlesex County Building and Construction Trades Council, Vice President of the Middlesex County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and a member of the Executive Board of the New Jersey State Building and Construction Trades Council.

In our community I served as Vice Chairman of the Middlesex County Board of Social Services, Chairman of the Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Red Cross and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Middlesex County Community College.

Here's a photo of me when I was a "Connector" on Unit #5 of the Public Service Electric Generating Station in Sewaren in the early sixties.

One of the biggest thrills I ever had was while working on this job. It's a tradition among Ironworkers that when we erect the first piece of steel that reaches the high point of a building, we place a tree or an American flag on the beam or column. We had four connectors on the job and none of us was aware that our next piece of steel was a forty foot column that would attain the high point of the structure, one hundred and eighty two feet above the ground. Everything seemed normal as the crane started to lift the column. Then we all saw a huge six by eight foot American flag was attached to the top of the column. We set the base of the column in place and were about to detach the column (we had a system of disconnecting the column from the crane by which we would yank the pin out of the shackle by pulling on the tag line that was attached to it) when we realized that the wind had wrapped the flag around the rigging. Someone would have to climb the column. It was a great honor in our eyes and I was chosen. I climbed the forty feet to the top of the column and when I got there, the first thing I did was to unwrap the flag. As soon as I did, the flag started waving in the wind and at that moment there was a huge cheer from the ground and when I looked down, I saw every worker throw his hard hat in the air. Out on the river every tug and boat on the water began blowing their horns. We had a siren on the job for emergencies and it was blaring. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up and I had goose bumps all over my body. I was so flustered I almost forgot to pull the pin and disconnect the column. Each of us has had moments in our lives that we will never forget. That day was one of mine. One of my biggest disappointments also occurred. The small camera I carried with me ran out of film just before they sent the column in the air. I never took a picture of it.

I was privileged to be a delegate to the National AFL-CIO Convention in Washington, DC in 1992 where we endorsed Governor Bill Clinton to be our choice to become the next President of the United States of America.

Here's a photo I had taken with him.

PS: Bill was standing on a box :o)

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard about the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I was installing a mail chute in the House of Representatives Office Building (The Sam Rayburn Building) in Washington, DC. when a worker came in saying that he had just heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot. He said he didn't have any more information. I and my partner Bruce Delmas couldn't believe it. We thought he must have gotten it wrong. I didn't know he was in Dallas, I assumed he was in Washington. We went out to our car and turned on the radio. The first words I heard were "The President is dead.....".

I'm proud to be a Union member.....

Everyone, union and non-union workers benefit from the work of Union Labor. Union workers because they have a unified voice with their employers. Non-union because the employers they work for treat them better in order to keep unions out of their companies. If the Labor Movement dies, it won't be long before the laws we fought long and hard for will be repealed and greedy corporations will have us return to the days when the worker had no protection at all. We will be working harder for longer hours and lower wages, under terrible and unsafe working conditions. We, the People, can't let that happen. Labor has taken a big hit ever since President Ronald Reagan began the practice of replacing striking workers when he did it to the striking Air Traffic controllers in 1981. The pendulum has been swinging to the right ever since but it is now swinging back and the same spirit that once gave Americans the highest standard of living in the world is now returning and will make us NUMBER ONE again.

It's been a good life...God Bless Union Labor

Visit the home page of the

International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers

Or check out the home page of the AFL-CIO