Editorial Note: The photo of Bill Coniglio may be viewed at the original notice appearing on the Washington Post web page.
A Personal Remembrance by Bill Hirzy
Bill Coniglio was one of the first 13 employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when it was created in December 1970. I didn’t know him then – I met him when I joined the Agency in 1981, and he made an immediate impression. Here was a force of nature, working in the early years of the Reagan Administration to build an organization dedicated to bettering the working conditions of EPA Headquarters professional employees. He also saw the need to make sure that employees could work in an ethical setting to accomplish the Agency’s mission. He was the first President of our Union, then Local 2050 of the National Federation of Federal Employees. You can read at the Union’s website nteu280.org the early struggles of the organizing group of which Bill was the acknowledged leader. (More on his life after his retirement is in the death notice published in the Washington Post of March 17, 2013, from which the photo above was taken.)
I remember the enthusiasm Bill and I shared while visiting Congressional Offices, right after we won our representational election in June 1984, to announce the advent of this new kind of labor union in the federal sector – one dedicated not only to protecting employees and bettering their working conditions, but also to working cooperatively with management in accomplishing the Agency’s mission. Little did we appreciate how many years it would take before even a modicum of that kind of partnership would develop, then only temporarily under Bill Clinton.
Bill Coniglio was a leader who constantly strove to build consensus, not only within the Union, but between employees the union came to represent and their management. It was at Bill’s elbow – and Bob Carton’s – that I learned how to be a union president.
During our first several years the Union’s relationship with Headquarters management, after a bumpy start while we were organizing and finally winning our representational election in 1984, was cordial – if not always completely harmonious. Bill and I spent many hours in weekly meetings with the Director of Headquarters Labor Relations discussing issues that had come up over the week. It is a sorry situation that those weekly get togethers are no more. They were Bill’s creation and they really worked. Bill was a creative thinker, always looking for a solution that would meet employees’ needs and give management what it needed to accommodate Union proposals. Sometimes both we and management got what we wanted and needed, but sometimes we didn’t. On those occasions Bill would bring word back to the Executive Board on where we stood, and then start asking for ideas.
During these meetings of the Union Executive Board Bill (The Rabbit….”Coniglio” is “rabbit” in Italian, and he often joked about that) often regaled us with humorous stories, told with his sly, Sicilian wit on display. He was a guy it was a pleasure to be around, to learn from and joke with and find solutions with. He loved life and what he was doing here. The smile on his face in the photo is how I remember him best.
Bill served two tenures at Headquarters, the first ending in June 1988, when he “retired” to New Jersey to run the family horticulture business. That was right after he led the Union’s first efforts to deal with the infamous toxic carpet incident at Waterside Mall. His leadership during that period set the tone for the Union’s subsequent serious battles with management and the carpet industry that followed his departure. I was at his side when we met with Assistant Administrator Charles Grizzle and demanded that the carpet be removed and accommodations for affected employees provided immediately. It was a month after that that I, with great trepidation, began my first term as President. It was a scary thing indeed to see Bill Coniglio walk out the door at that time.
Bill returned during the early 2000’s for another two years before finally retiring again to New Jersey to resume the family business and to serve his local community.
I wrote to his widow that I thought it an unavoidable shame that the current cadre of Headquarters employees, and especially the Union leadership has not had the boon of Bill’s presence in their midst. He remains an important part of my life – I will always miss him.
