Mr. Speaker. after 24 years as President of the 116.000member International Longshoremens Association. AFLCIO. Thomas W. (Teddy) Gleason recently retired and was named "President Emeritus." He has been associated with the waterfront for over 70 years. The son of Irish immigrants. Gleason was born in Manhattans Greenwich Village on November 9. 1900. the oldest of 13 children. He first went to work on New York Citys West Side docks at age 15 where he acquired the nickname "Teddy" to distinguish him from his father. who was also a dockworker. Except for a period in the early 1930s when stevedoring firms blacklisted him from working on the piers because of his union activity.
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