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Mr. Robert E. Gleason
Secretary-Treasurer
International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO
Robert E. Gleason recently began his fifth term and 17th year as Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO, a position he was first elected to at the union's 1991 Convention.
He previously served as Secretary-Treasurer of the ILA's Atlantic Coast District for eight years.
Gleason is the fourth generation family member to work in the longshoring industry. His entrance into the union came in 1957 when he worked as a checker with Sea-Land in Port Newark as a member of ILA Local 1.
Mr. Gleason also coordinates the union’s Committee on Political Education program.
Last year in 2006, Mr. Gleason was invited by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to serve as a member of the Maritime Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH) as an employee representative.
In recent years, Mr. Gleason has represented the ILA at numerous conferences sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration to study Short-Sea Shipping, helping to formulate policies and programs to create more energy conscience and environmentally sound alternative methods of delivering cargo to America’s ports.
Since October 2002, Mr. Gleason has served as a Vice President and Executive Board member of the New York State AFL-CIO.
Between 1961 and 1963, Gleason served in the U.S. Army and was stationed with the Transportation Corps in the Panama Canal region. Today, he is a member of American Legion Post 1870 in New York City.
After active duty, Gleason first worked with Seatrain and later with the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington.
Gleason was elected to a four year term as secretary-treasurer of the Atlantic Coast District at the District's 1983 convention. He was re-elected to another four year term in 1987.
Gleason is a member of the ILA’s Civil Rights Committee. He also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the ILA’s Children’s Fund, which has raised over $2 million for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, Connecticut.
In April 2006, Gleason was honored by the Seafarers & International House in New York City, one of the industry’s top maritime organizations. In April 1997, Gleason received the Maritime Industry Good Scout Award presented by the Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America. He has also been honored by the United Negro College Fund as Man of the Year as well as the Essex and Union (New Jersey) chapters of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and was a recipient of the ILA Great Lakes District’s Owen J. Kavanaugh Award.
Mr. Gleason is a Vice President and Board member of the DC Friends of Ireland and he is a past Governor, Secretary and Vice President of the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City.
Gleason and his wife, Judy, reside in Warwick, New York, and have two daughters, Lauren and Erin.
Robert E. Gleason
Secretary-Treasurer
17 Battery Place
Suite 930
New York, New York 10004
212-425-1200