Edison Severino Biography

Edison Severino is the Business Manager of Laborers’ International Union Local 78 located in New York City. Edison came to the United States in a makeshift boat from the Dominican Republic when he was 19. He says it is the scariest thing he has ever done.

When Edison arrived in the United States, he worked a variety of jobs to get by. In the early 90s he was working as an asbestos handler before the industry was unionized. The wages were low, benefits were not provided, and overtime pay was not offered. The industry also routinely violated environmental regulations. Contaminated material would be disposed of clandestinely and left in open containers. Workers were not even allowed to wear protective clothing so not to draw attention.


In January of 1996 the Laborers began an organizing drive to unionize the asbestos industry. Despite speaking little English, Edison was passionate about the cause and attended house meetings, volunteered to phone bank, and organized picket lines. By the end of April, 1,700 asbestos workers, including Edison were organized.

Shortly after the successful organizing drive, Edison was asked to go to Alabama to organize Latino poultry workers. He spent many days standing on a highway watching for the immigration authority because employers regularly threatened to get workers deported if they tried to form a union. Edison later organized in North Carolina and in New York helped Laborers Local 79 organize demolition workers.

In late 1996 Edison was hired as a Business Agent for Laborers Local 78. As a Business Agent he dealt with grievances, organized new campaigns, and administered the collective bargaining agreement. In 2001 when the World Trade Center collapsed, Edison helped coordinate the clean up effort and is tremendously proud of the effort by Local 78 members, many of whom worked seven days a week for months.

In 2003, responding to wide dissatisfaction amongst the membership, Edison organized the United Immigrants Committee, a group of members who demanded better representation and a new direction for their Union. In January 2004, the members elected Edison as Business Manager of the Local in one of the highest turn-outs in LIUNA electoral history.

Local 78 members now perform 90 percent of all asbestos abatement in New York City and Long Island. In 1996, workers earned $11 an hour. Today, they make $40.05 an hour including benefits. Under Edison’s stewardship, Local 78 and the industry have jointly developed the groundbreaking Safety and Compliance Initiative to improve the health and safety of workers while also protecting the environment. Local 78’s members are 95 percent immigrants, predominately Latino and Polish.

Edison is married to his teenage love Jackie. They have two daughters, Natalie and Nairobi, and a son, Steven Edison.