Global Labor Strategies

Tim's Brother Sean Costello Remembers Tim's Early Yearts

      Most of you know my brother, Tim, as a writer, trucker, fisherman, political activist, neighbor, and friend.  You probably don’t know much about his childhood and early years, so I will talk briefly about our parents, growing up in Boston and Dedham, and some early experiences that shaped Tim’s thinking about economics, history, and labor.

      Tom Costello, our father, was born in Hyde Park in 1911, the youngest of six children.  His parents were Irish immigrants from Galway who met in Boston.  Our grandfather, Alexander Costello, was a groundskeeper on a large estate in Milton.  Tom and his friends had a great time playing on the estate grounds.  Most of his friends were children of the other Irish immigrants who settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood called Corriganville.  Many of the men worked on neighboring estates or in local factories.  The women worked as maids and household helpers.

      Claire MacPhee, our mother was also born in Hyde Park in 1916, the third of six children.  Her parents came from Prince Edward Island, Canada.  They met in Boston and moved to Hyde Park where her father, Jim, worked as a machinist for the Sturtevant Corporation which eventually was bought by Westinghouse, where he worked until his retirement.

      Tom graduated from Hyde Park High School an 1928 and went to work for the New Haven Railroad in the Readville car shops located on the Boston-Dedham line.  The Readville shops were the main repair facility for the northern end of the railroad.  At their peak they employed about 4000 workers – plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, upholsterers and welders.  Tom became a welder and a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, Local #102.  He was active in the Union from the start.  He became President and served for many years.  The President and other officers were full-time welders dealing with grievances and other problems as they happened.  This was a no-frills operation; no expense accounts, no business lunches, no fancy offices.  In fact, the office was in our house.

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.”

New York Times' Article on Tim's Life and Work

Tim Costello, Trucker-Author Who Fought Globalization, Dies at 64 

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: December 26, 2009

Tim Costello, a truck driver who became a labor advocate and theorist, the co-author of four books and the founder of an organization that fought globalization, died Dec. 4 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 64.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his brother, Sean.

Mr. Costello was hailed by many academics and labor advocates as a bona fide worker-intellectual. A genial, mustached native of Boston, he drove fuel-delivery trucks, worked as a lobsterman, founded a group that battled against the fast-growing use of temporary workers and developed close links with labor advocates in China, Italy and Mexico.

His most notable book was “Globalization From Below: The Power of Solidarity” (2000), written with Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, which became a primer for labor advocates who argued that globalization was destroying jobs and reducing wages in the United States while exploiting workers in Asia.

The Nation Magazine Honors Tim as a "blue-collar intellectual, truck-driving internationalist"

KEEP ON TRUCKIN': Tim Costello, the blue-collar intellectual, truck-driving internationalist and globally respected author who died in December at 64 (from pancreatic cancer), fully embraced the anti-corporate globalization slogan: "Another World Is Possible." Costello was the energetic founder of groups such as the Campaign on Contingent Work, the North American Alliance for Fair Employment and Global Labor Strategies, and he wrote (with Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith) groundbreaking books like Global Village or Global Pillage (1994) and Globalization From Below (2000), which forged newer and deeper understandings of the importance of international solidarity on economic and social issues.

Costello delighted in the late '90s renewal of activism around globalization, and he celebrated the new tools available to organizers. In one of his last articles for The Nation ("Social Movements 2.0," January 15, 2009), he wrote with Brecher and Smith that the "online universe is not simply another place for people to congregate, circulate a petition, debate politics or mail out a newsletter.... Instead, the web is increasingly looking like the invention of the printing press, which radically changed the lives of even those who could not read, by spurring the Protestant reformation and scientific revolution." That was classic Costello: rooted in the old struggle between privilege and the cooperative commonwealth, yet ever at the ready to employ new technologies, adopt smarter tactics and build broader coalitions.   JOHN NICHOLS

Memorial Video of Tim by Jason Pramas

A video scrapbook of footage from a few moments in the work life of noted American labor activist and scholar Tim Costello (6/13/1945-12/4/2009). Produced by Jason Pramas for the Tim Costello Memorial event held at the Main Library of the Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, MA, USA on February 1, 2010. Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2009 Jason Pramas.

Memories of Tim from Jason Pramas on Vimeo.

A Condolence Ceremony for Tim From John Brown Childs

A Condolence Ceremony for Tim
From John Brown Childs
Santa Cruz, California
20 January 2010

I had the good fortune of meeting Tim many years ago through our mutual friend Jeremy Brecher.  I was immediately (and continuously) struck by the way in Tim was a compassionate world worker with a sharp intelligence, humility, powerful drive for justice, and an overall conviviality that personified and exemplified how to do and be globalization from below.

The documentary by Tim, Jeremy, and Brendan Smith, “Global Village or Global Pillage?” about globalization from below, that I have shown many times to my students, always strikes home with its clarity and deep current of social justice.  My students are always riveted by Tim’s easy to understand analysis of complex problems in that documentary.  Several thousand of my students have comment on his presentation and have benefited from it.  Many of them are now out in the world doing good work for humankind.

New York Harmon Law Firm Honors "Visionary" Tim Costello

We mourn the loss of visionary Tim Costello, a man who had prescient knowledge and understanding of the needs of hourly-wage workers and those at the lower end of the earning scale, those with little power to oppose outsourcing of jobs to other countries and the use of temporary workers - practices that eliminated jobs and job benefits for many American workers. He helped found Global Labor Strategies, "which fostered cross-boarder alliances to fight to improve wages and working conditions in the face of downward pressures from companies moving jobs over seas." Mr. Costello also founded the  North American Alliance for Fair Employment. Mr. Costello thought that "if you were on the left you will be working at it for the rest of your life, and you may not be successful, but it would be worth the effort." We are hopeful that others will step forward to fill the shoes of this exceptional advocate for the American worker.

Elance announces sad news of Tim's passing to thier membership

Sad news: Tim Costello, member of Enlace’s first Steering Committee has died: 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.

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. Read the full post here

Seattle Times Publishes a Short Obit of Tim

Tim Costello, 64, a truck driver who became a labor advocate and theorist, the co-author of four books and the founder of an organization (Global Labor Strategies) which fostered cross-border alliances to fight for better wages and working conditions in the face of downward pressures from globalization, died of pancreatic cancer Dec. 4 in Cambridge, Mass.

Admiring Tim from a Distance

I was only able to admire the man from a distance and from publicity. Sorry for this loss, Gilly. (I don't know your email address.) You have a lot to be proud of. Enver Hoxha!

Craig Segal (Chicago, IL)