| LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. –– The New Jersey Mechanical Allied Crafts Council (NJMACC) announced today that Charles “Chuddy” Whalen will be serving as its new Executive Director.
Whalen, a lifelong Hamilton resident, recently retired as Assistant Business Manager of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 9 and serves as a Township Council member for Hamilton Township in Mercer County. He will be replacing outgoing Executive Director Edward W. Fedorko Jr. for the statewide union workers’ alliance.
The NJMACC represents six trades and more than 30 local unions across New Jersey, providing a statewide presence to spearhead workforce training, safety compliance, and continuing education programs. They maintain federal and state-registered Junior Apprentice Training Centers and assist in recruitment efforts.
“This organization brings together union members to make sure our rights are defended, to make sure our training is done right, and to make sure our voices are heard as one,” Executive Director Charles ‘Chuddy’ Whalen said. “Our members do the job right, so we are here to make sure we do right by them. We´ll always be scrapping for fair wages and equal opportunity, and I’m here for the fight.”
In the past, Whalen served on the Hamilton Township Planning Board, as a trustee for NJ SEED, and as a member of the Mercer County Workforce Investment Board. He has also coached youth football and baseball, including American Legion Baseball with Hamilton Post 31 where they participated in the American Legion World Series. He is a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Whalen previously held the Secretary-Treasurer position on NJMACC’s Board of Directors and will continue to collaborate with the organization’s leadership team that includes NJMACC President Wayne DeAngelo, who also serves as State Assemblyman for the 14th District and president of the IBEW Local 269; Vice President Kevin Bellew; Recording Secretary Michael Ricca; and an Executive Board full of established and well-regarded union voices providing guidance.
“There isn’t a better person to lead NJMACC forward than Chuddy, and our team is going to provide support so that he and the organization can continue to make progress on behalf of the hardworking union members we represent,” said President Wayne DeAngelo. “Chuddy will be ushering in the new generation of union workers, just as he was brought in by his father and the generation that came before. With that kind of union pedigree, he is the perfect person to pass the torch to as we move forward.”
The NJMACC represents Garden State union workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers; International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers; International Union of Elevator Constructors; United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada; and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
As one of its main focal points, NJMACC stresses the need for Project Labor Agreements to ensure the use of union labor for public contracts. The group has worked with municipalities across the state to ensure the same. The alliance also encourages corporations and public entities to adopt a Responsible Contracting policy for inclusion in all bid documents, placing an emphasis on finding the lowest responsible bid, not simply finding the lowest bid.
A Responsible Contracting policy codifies enforceable qualifications adopted for a project and incorporated into bid specifications. The policy ensures competent and qualified construction firms and personnel, and takes into account factors other than price when considering bids in order to ensure the selection of qualified construction professionals to build and renovate structures.
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