Bardelli: A Living Link to UAW’s Birth
Local 245 builds wheelchair ramp for UAW veteran
Sometimes it takes 50 pounds of galvanized nails, six bags of cement and 299 pieces of pressure-treated lumber to keep the union rolling on.
But most important, it takes the kindness of volunteers like those from UAW Local 245 in Dearborn, Mich. This summer, 11 of them turned these materials donated by Stock Building Supplies into the wheelchair access ramp that helps keep UAW veteran Al Bardelli rolling in and out of his Dearborn home.
At 93, Bardelli is a living link to the birth of the UAW. He is the last Local 600 member still alive who was on the bargaining team for the first UAW contract with Ford Motor Co. that was signed on June 20, 1941.
Bardelli’s son, Al Jr., a Local 245 member, requested assistance from the local in building the ramp for his father, a past president of Local 600’s Glass Plant unit in the Ford Rouge Complex in Dearborn.
“Fifty-one years ago there were thousands of people in need of a contract, and Al helped to secure the first 24-page agreement between Ford Motor Co. and the UAW-CIO,” said Rick Browning, Local 245’s Community Services chairman. “Remember those who came before you and see what you can do for them.”
Besides Browning, Bardelli’s ramp was built by his son and other Local 245 members and leaders, including Carl Ford, Eric Miesmer, Bob Varner, Michael O’Piela, Bruce Doom, Rick Burns, Bob MacDonald, Terry Horn and John Keresi.
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| Al Bardelli (fourth from left, back row) in 1941 with the UAW negotiating team. |
