Union Executive Remembers His Friend and Colleague

With their friendship dating back to 1977 as union organizers in their 20s, Thomas A. Wilkinson, secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 371, said on Sunday, "Brian loomed so large in people's lives, beyond belief in a lot of ways."

Speaking with reporters in the local's headquarters on Post Road West, Wilkinson reminisced about his professional and personal relationship with Brian A. Petronella, president of the local since 1999, who died Friday at age 54.

 "I've been the second banana," Wilkinson said of his lengthy relationship with Petronella and position in the local. "We loved Brian, we really did."

Wilkinson, who is also president of the Fairfield County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, said he joined the union as a "kid" working in a market in the Boston area in the late '60s, and became a full-time officer of the union in July 1977.

"I think of Brian and I think everything good in the world was in Brian Petronella," Wilkinson continued, "and that's not an overstatement from me."

The union has said Petronella arrived at his Norwalk home Friday evening after work and collapsed sometime thereafter. It said his cause of death remains unknown.

Local 371 is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers International, and represents employees of supermarkets, healthcare facilities and school bus companies.

In addition to his position as the local's president, Petronella was vice president of the union's international parent organization.

 "He was kind, he was considerate and he was courteous to everybody," Wilkinson said of Petronella, " … and he got that way through life's experiences and how he was raised."

The only ground rule for the interview was that Wilkinson would not discuss how Petronella's death would affect the future of the union or who might be elected as its next president.

Wilkinson said Petronella accomplished his greatest goal last weekend, when bartenders and wait staff at Foxwoods Casino voted to be represented by Local 371.

It took Petronella 17 years to bring the casino's workers into the union, Wilkinson said, and it is going to go down as one of Petronella's greatest achievements.

In March, Petronella negotiated a new contract for employees of Stop & Shop supermarkets, heading off an imminent strike by about 40,000 workers.

Petronella and his brother, Ronald M. Petronella, who is the local's executive vice president, are the sons of the late Robert A. Petronella.

Local 371's building is named after Robert A. Petronella, who was elected president of the local in 1965. His brother, Ronald F. Petronella, was Connecticut's Commissioner of Labor from 1990-1995.

"Brian was a risk-taker – he wasn't reckless – but he wasn't afraid to take a risk," Wilkinson said. "He just pushed the envelope a little further."

Wilkinson said that with the weak economy, the local faces huge challenges representing its 10,000 members.

"We just lost 1,800 people at Shaw's (supermarkets)," he said. "The company goes; (our members) come to us, and with expectations."

An online biography of Petronella prepared by the AFL-CIO says he became a member of Local 371 in 1972 when he joined the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL.

It says he was appointed a Local 371 organizer in February 1977, and became a business agent in 1980.

In March 1982, it says, the local's executive board elected Petronella to the office of Executive Vice-President. In 1989, Petronella rose to Secretary-Treasurer of Local 371, the position he held until 1999 when he became its president.

Petronella graduated from Wilton High School in 1974 and attended Norwalk Community College and the University of Pennsylvania, the biography says, with him graduating from the Harvard University Trade Program in 1978.

"All of his waking hours he was thinking about this union, and I'm sure when he slept at night he was dreaming about this union," Wilkinson said. "His whole life was his family and the union."

Petronella is survived by a wife and two daughters.

Petronella's wake will be held Tuesday, Aug, 10, 2010, at the Magner Funeral Home, 12 Mott Ave., in Norwalk. Calling hours will be from 3:30 to 8 p.m.

A funeral mass will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 11, at 10 a.m. at St. Aloysius Church, 40 Maple St. in New Canaan. Burial will follow at St. John's Cemetery, 223 Richards Ave., Norwalk.

Friends and family will be gathering after the burial at Local 371's headquarters at 290 Post Rd. West, Westport.

Memorial donations may be made to the College Trust Fund of Lindsey Burke Petronella, 290 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881.