CARTERET—The Middlesex County AFL-CIO Council presented Mayor Daniel J. Reiman with the 2008 Hubert H. Humphrey “Friend of Labor” Award at the council’s 25th annual awards and scholarship brunch on April 27.
Every year since 1983, the Middlesex County Central Labor Council recognizes prominent individuals who mirror the example set by former U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who was a strong defender of human civil rights. Along with his efforts to end racial discrimination, Humphrey advanced national labor unions and interests. He is credited for being predominantly responsible for the first federal labor laws, and furthering the rights of laborers across the nation.
Reiman was honored for exemplifying the ideals and concerns of regional labor unions within Carteret’s economic development agenda. According to Middlesex County AFL-CIO President Joe Jennings, “Like Hubert H. Humphrey, Dan has demonstrated a balance between business and labor with the redevelopment that Carteret is acclaimed for. His door has always been open to labor, and his administration has been proactively forthright regarding our concerns.”
In his 2008 State of the Borough Address, Reiman illustrated that his staff and redevelopment professionals have been directed to include project labor agreements between the Borough of Carteret and development companies building in town;
“Project labor assures that skilled union craftsmen literally and figuratively construct the footings and foundations of our new neighborhoods and light industrial commercial areas,” Reiman stated.
The AFL-CIO also recognized Reiman for hosting Carteret’s annual “Worker’s Memorial Day” observance, held Monday, April 28, at the Thomas J. Deverin Community Center. Each year Reiman joins with labor union representatives, as well as county and state dignitaries, for this ceremony which recognizes and honors laborers who have been injured or killed on the job.
“To a good extent,” Reiman announced, “this administration’s policies and approach to labor has been following on the ideals and family values I learned growing up in a working-class, middle income family – the typical family that makes up the vast majority of our community. Those represented through our regional labor unions serve as the foundation of progress for both the public and private sector. Here in Carteret, a good deal of our revitalization has been owed to the quality of work that has been provided, and to the values that they maintain.”
