Though I work to count my blessings each and every day, on Thanksgiving I tend to organize little gratitude lists; this is one of them:

Steve Dondley of Prometheus Labor Communications and I began talking in January of this year. We finally met up in late April in New York for Labor Voices 3. Before I left NY and saying so long to my new friend, Union Review was up and running with a whole new engine of technology firing it up. Steve, who has believed in my mission from the day he heard it, has dedicated endless hours laboring over the way in which Union Review behaves on the backend. He has tweaked and pruned, added stuff and removed things not necessary - and he did 90% or more of this on his own dime. Since the site moved from where it was to where it is now we have grown into a sizable online community - one which I don't believe would have been possible without his fierce determination to help me see my mission come to light - what is amazing is that we only just begun, something Dondley reminds of a few times a month.

While Steve and I were working on the technology I was working to post as much as I could to MYSPACE simultaneously. I wanted to meet new and exciting like-minded people and open up some debate with folks that aren't on the same page. One of the first people I met from that effort was Charles Lezette, a union Carpenter out of Albany, NY. Lezette is a die-hard union activist with a goal to get the members of his organization out to vote. He does this through constant emails to as many people as possible and often backs up what he sends via email by way of regular mail. As he became more familiar with Union Review he began to post news articles. First there were one or two - but then the brother became unstoppable. In the course of that time we learned Lezette possessed a flair for video shooting and editing. Before we knew it, Lezette became our first correspondent broadcasting from an Orange County Chopper rally and building other videos around the UBC endorsement of John Edwards - an event that found him handing the presidential candidate a Union Review business card! The brother, aside from his work with Union Review, is now managing his own site called UBC Newsroom. - which you should check out when you can.

There are now close to 470 MYSPACE friends on the Union Review page - and aside from Lezette, another brother came forward as being one of the most active unionists I ever met - ever. I am talking about Joe638NYC ... Joe is a Steamfitter out of NYC, has been a union member for the majority of his working life and union activist for an equal amount of time. To put this guy in perspective, think of this: At least two or three days a week the brother has serious laryngitis. When I ask him if he has a cold or flu, he laughs and says he was at this or that rally. It doesn't matter if it is the Writers Guild or the Sheet Metal Workers; the guy is there with a voice that will be heard. He is a born motivator who is a tremendous asset to the union movement in the country. Joe became the second correspondent to Union Review and probably posts more articles of interest to the site than I do at this point. He is an accomplished graphic artist and is solely responsible for creating the Union Review Hard Hat sticker, a lot of the other art you will see sprinkled in stories, and he has taken it upon himself to design and print out Union Review pamphlets wherever he goes.

It is with the help of these three brothers that Union Review grows each and every day - and with my deepest sincerity, I say thank you to you guys for your hard work, smart work, and brilliant friendship you've offered me.

Who else is on my gratitude list? I am glad that you asked. Every single person who has come to the site, emailed me about the campaigns they are working on, the folks writing in with questions on how to form a union where they work, and the many emails from people who say thank you to me for spreading the news around and setting up a platform that is free of all politics and ... well, pissing matches. You cannot imagine how amazing it feels for me to open your letters of appreciation - let me just say it is amazing and I thank you for acknowledging what we all are doing.

Finally, with less detail, but very important to mention, I want to say a big thank you to:

Anthony Valentino
Colleen Mucci
Frank Carbone
Rochelle Gordon
The Teamsters
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters
The National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981
Tula Connell & all of the AFL-CIO staff
Rand Wilson
Jonathan Tasini at Workinglife.com
Jimmy Neeve of Teamstersonline.com
Our friend Kevin up in Philly
Chuck in Wisconsin
James in Wisconsin

& crap this list can go on until next year - everyone is special and deserves to be on my gratitude list, but for now know that this Thanksgiving is one of great gratitude for me; and I hope you all have a fantastic holiday with your friends and families - or if you should be so fortunate, alone with the remote in one hand and a drink in the other !

In Solidarity,
-Richard