IN MEMORY OF TIM COSTELLO

Tim Costello, architect of innovative strategies for the labor movement and founder of Global Labor Strategies, died December 4 of pancreatic cancer at age 64.

Along with GLS, Tim's friends and colleagues are developing this memorial page as a tribute to Tim.

All who knew Tim and his work are invited to contribute to this page.

Tim in Beijing March 2008

How to Contribute to Tim's Memorial Page

Post your thoughts, memories and reflections to the GLS Blog:  Send an email to Brendan Smith (brendan (at) brendan-smith.org). Paste the title of your post in the subject line of your email and your text in the body of the email. If you want to post pictures, simply attach them to your email.

Comment on others' blog posts: Click on the title of a specific post if you would like to comment on someone else's post.  Scroll down and write in the comments box.

For donation information see Tim's Boston Globe obituary below.

Tim's Boston Globe Obituary

COSTELLO, Tim Of Cambridge, formerly of Rockport, died December 4 at age 64 of pancreatic cancer. Husband of Susanne Rasmussen of Cambridge, MA; father of Pia Costello of Cambridge, MA and Gillian Costello of Brooklyn, NY; grandfather of Evan and Cathryn Sherman of Brooklyn, NY; brother of Sean Costello of Belmont, MA; and a friend to many. Founder and partner in Global Labor Strategies, lifelong labor activist, and author of many articles and books on issues involving labor, globalization, and the environment. Memorial Service is planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in Tim's memory may be made to: VNA Care Network & Hospice, Development Office, 5 Federal Street, Danvers, MA 01923-3687.  12/06/09 Original link available here.

Tim's Family Obituary

Tim Costello, an architect of innovative strategies for the labor movement and the author of numerous articles and books on labor and globalization, died at home on December 4, 2009.  The cause was pancreatic cancer.

Tim August, 2009

Mr. Costello was born in Boston on June 13, 1945 to Thomas and Claire (MacPhee) Costello, and raised in Dedham, MA.  As a teenager he worked with his father as a construction laborer and learned from him the value of worker organization, often typing the correspondence of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the union for which his father served as president for many years.

As a young man, Mr. Costello went to work as a fuel oil delivery driver and became active in the Teamster’s union and the union reform movement.  Always an avid reader and writer, he set up an office in the back of his truck where he spent many hours in self-education.  He also studied at Goddard College in Vermont, the New School in New York, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston, from which he graduated.  He gradually came to be recognized in the Boston area as an unusual combination of worker and intellectual.  In his book Taking History to Heart, James Green described Mr. Costello as “`Cosmic’ Tim, who seemed to have trucked everywhere and read everything.”

Tim Costello, an architect of innovative strategies for the labor movement and the author of numerous articles and books on labor and globalization, died at home on December 4, 2009.  The cause was pancreatic cancer.

Tim August, 2009

Mr. Costello was born in Boston on June 13, 1945 to Thomas and Claire (MacPhee) Costello, and raised in Dedham, MA.  As a teenager he worked with his father as a construction laborer and learned from him the value of worker organization, often typing the correspondence of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the union for which his father served as president for many years.

As a young man, Mr. Costello went to work as a fuel oil delivery driver and became active in the Teamster’s union and the union reform movement.  Always an avid reader and writer, he set up an office in the back of his truck where he spent many hours in self-education.  He also studied at Goddard College in Vermont, the New School in New York, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston, from which he graduated.  He gradually came to be recognized in the Boston area as an unusual combination of worker and intellectual.  In his book Taking History to Heart, James Green described Mr. Costello as “`Cosmic’ Tim, who seemed to have trucked everywhere and read everything.”

In 1973 Mr. Costello took a research trip across the country studying the impact of the current recession on young workers.  The result was the book Common Sense for Hard Times co-authored with labor historian Jeremy Brecher.  Mr. Costello and Mr. Brecher continued as collaborators for the next forty years.

Mr. Costello’s lifelong work in the labor movement included work as a union representative for Local 285 of the Service Employees International Union, as well as positions with the Commonwealth Institute and Campaign for Contingent Work.  He became convinced of the importance of labor cooperation with other social movements, and edited with Mr. Brecher the book Building Bridges: The Emerging Coalition of Labor and Community.

In the 1990s, Mr. Costello became acutely aware of the growth of contingent work and the elimination of the secure jobs that had been the mainstay of working class lives and communities.  In response he helped organize and served as Coordinator of the North American Alliance for Fair Employment, a network of 65 unions and community-based organizations in the US and Canada, including groups as diverse as college teachers and day laborers.

Mr. Costello also became increasingly concerned with the impact of globalization on workers and the labor movement.  He authored two books on the subject, Global Village or Global Pillage with Mr. Brecher and Globalization from Below with Mr. Brecher and Brendan Smith, a policy analyst and labor activist.  He also co-produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Global Village or Global Pillage?

In the 2005, Mr. Costello left the North American Alliance for Fair Employment to found the international network-building organization Global Labor Strategies, which he ran in collaboration with Mr. Brecher and Mr. Smith.  He travelled extensively to Europe, Latin America, India, and China, helping link labor movements and their allies to better address the problems they faced in a globalizing economy.

Long a committed environmentalist, Mr. Costello was a founder of the organization Save Open Spaces on Cape Ann, where he lived for many years and worked intermittently as a lobsterman.  In 2009 he helped found the Labor Network for Sustainability.

A lifelong resident of the Boston area, Mr. Costello was a well-known figure in the Boston labor movement, including not only the Teamsters and Service Employees, but also such venues as Jobs with Justice, the Harvard Trade Union Program, and the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Mr. Costello is survived by his wife, Susanne Rasmussen, an environmental planner with the City of Cambridge, MA; his brother, Sean Costello of Belmont, MA; two daughters, Gillian Costello of Brooklyn, NY and Pia Costello of Cambridge, MA; his grandchildren Evan and Cathryn Sherman of Brooklyn, NY; nieces and nephews; and many beloved friends.   

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to: VNA Care Network & Hospice, Development Office, 5 Federal Street, Danvers, MA 01923-3687.

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Cambridge, MA; father of Pia Costello of Cambridge, MA and Gillian Costello of Brooklyn, NY; grandfather of Evan and Cathryn Sherman of Brooklyn, NY; brother of Sean Costello of Belmont, MA; and a friend to many. Founder and partner in Global Labor Strategies, lifelong labor activist, and author of many articles and books on issues involving labor, globalization, and the environment

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I learned last evening that my union brother Tim has died. We worked together at Metropolitan Petroleum in Chelsea until he was fired for trying to end that employer's acting as an ally to BU, in the face of a strike by BU workers in April 1979. Tim was active in our Boston TDU chapter and wrote for our newspaper, The Hub. In 1984 Tim turned me on to a job vacancy at Lindenmeyr in South Boston where Tim was the steward. When that company moved to Canton the commute from Rockport was way beyond Tim's liking (he used to commute to the Southie warehouse by train), so he pursued other work. In the early 90's, I returned the favor and got Tim some driving work at Romanow in South Boston. It was last evening while reading The Spokesman on line (the Local 25 rag) that I saw a Timothy Costello/Romanow listed in the "In Memorium" column. I was hoping it was some other Tim Costello from decades earlier. But when I googled his obituary I was and am shocked and saddened by my union brother's early passing. Tim has been well honored by all that's written in these pages. There is so much more to write. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

[Robynrihanna]

I only had the pleasure of meeting him in person once, over a weekend during a small gathering of contingent work activists.

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Hope it introduces more people to his work. I only had the pleasure of meeting him in person once, over a weekend during a small gathering of contingent work activists.

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[georgeeliot]

Thanks for the article it was really informative and exactly what I was searching for. I'm hopeful that you will add similar to this article.

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[gmoke]

Posted a piece on Tim and his last briefing paper at Dailykos, Bluemassgroup, and Eurotrib. Hope it introduces more people to his work.

[Michele Mattingly]

I was very saddened to learn yesterday of Tim's death. I only had the pleasure of meeting him in person once, over a weekend during a small gathering of contingent work activists. That was enough, though, to leave a lasting impression of a kind-hearted man who brought great dedication and thoughtfulness to his work.

I extend my condolences to his family.

[Michael Hirsch]

I knew Tim when we were both SDS militants at the New School and later in Boston. Unlike others of us, Tim was both an active SDS member and a trucker who believed deeply in the union movement and in the possibilities for working people to change the social order and rule in their own name. When SDS occupied a building or staged a sit-in, Tim used it as an opportunity to show fellow workers what "these kids" could do. " That's my group. And if they can do it, we can do it," he'd say. And while we--at least those at the New School in the late 1960s --considered ourselves Marxists, either in our way or in his, Tim was a Marxist in Marx's way. He had read Capital and got it, while we had barely read Paul Sweezy. He is missed.

[John Healey]

I encountered Tim on only one occasion years ago, when he and others had organized a one-day seminar on contingent work at Clark University, in Worcester, MA.

His knowledge and tenacity inspired me, and yet inspires me to continue my efforts for Single Payer Health Care.

[Jim Green]

To Tim's family and friends,

I have been waiting and thinking, as I read the wonder tributes to our Tim, about what I could add. I met Tim's on some picket line or at some meeting probably in the early 1980s, and then got to know him when he became my "student" in the Labor Studies Program at UMass Boston, when the College of Public and Community Service was still downtown, and still working as a free space for activists to connect and learn from one another. It always made me smile, and still does, to refer to Tim as my "student." We were about the same age and he had a much broader and richer set of political experiences and intellectual interests than I did. I think of the relationship we had (we also taught together) as an ideal of what folks call popular education: the students teach the teachers. I learned a great deal from Tim about how to think outside some of the intellectual and political categories I worked him. He was a man of unfailing good cheer even when everything around us spelled doom and gloom for the "left" and "labor."
I guess this was based on his intellectual confidence and his understanding of the wellsprings of popular power. He was the most cosmopolitan Teamster I ever met and I will miss him very much.

Tim's so-called teacher,
Jim Green

[Camilo Viveiros]

Our efforts for a better world have benefited from Tom's passionate energy. his work encouraged approaches like labor-community strategies and grassroots global organizing before they become more widespread. i have used his film and books with youth & students and i know that his work will continue to encourage us to strive toward a better world. we will miss him but i am thankful to have had him in the movement.

Camilo Viveiros

[Janice Fine]

Oh Tim, Oh Susse, I am so so sorry.

You were such a bright light.

At CPCS where Tim was part of an amazing study group with a bunch of us and Jim Green, we used to say that he had driven an oil truck through social history. Jim O'Halloran and I used to make fun of his accent, beginning many a sentence with "twas" as in "twas the night before Christmas..." Tim had been everywhere, done everything but had an understated way about him...he had no need to show you how much he knew, but you soon figured it out.

We used to trek up endless stairs to have parties and dinners at Tim and Susse's house in the North End and to talk for hours about the fate of the labor movement.

When I began graduate school, Tim helped peel me off the wall and helped me write one of my first papers.

I always envied the life-long friendship and intellectual partnership he had with Jeremy Brecher...What an amazingly fruitful relationship!

I look forward to reading other's comments and to getting together in Boston sometime to soon to toast our dear friend.

Janice Fine