Representing the People Who Build Chicago

As a Chicago resident, Joseph V. Healy ’05 sees his fair share of construction-related traffic jams. 

But as secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Laborers’ District Council, or LiUNA, he likes to think that he experiences that traffic a little differently than the average Chicago driver.

“Most people see a traffic jam because of construction as a big pain in the neck,” he says. “I see our members out there working and making things better for everyone.”

In his role, Healy represents more than 20,000 laborers, most of whom work in construction, but some of whom work in the clerical and industrial industries. 

These are the people who keep the services that most of us rely on, and that many of us take for granted, running as they should.

“Our members perform work that directly benefits the residents of the area,” says Healy. “Take lead service lines, for instance: there are more than 400,000 of them in the city of Chicago, and laborers will be replacing each one over the next 20 or 30 years. That work helps every family right when it happens.”

Healy came into his job with more in-depth knowledge of the construction industry than most lawyers. His father was a laborer, and he encouraged his son to work in the industry over summer breaks from college.

“He thought it would deter me from a career as a construction laborer because I would see how hard the job was,” Healy says, noting that his father was probably right. “That job also let me see how much I thought I could help the people doing this work; work that was so physically difficult but was so important to everyone that’s not working in construction.”

He continues, “The jobs that I worked on were always union jobs. We were always compensated fairly and justly, but that compensation was always under attack by big business and big money who wanted us paid less  and did not think that the protections on the job were important.”

With a passion for labor and employment law, Chicago-Kent College of Law was the natural choice for Healy. 

He graduated with the Labor and Employment certificate, then darted off to Springfield, Illinois, to work in the technical review unit of the Illinois House of Representatives’ Office of the Speaker.

“It’s a group of lawyers that reviews new bills that are filed in Springfield during the legislative session,” Healy says. “They make sure that the bill is going to do what it’s intended to do and then help explain to legislators what the bill would do so they can make an informed decision on whether to support it or not.”

Healy then returned to Chicago and joined personal injury firm Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates for nearly three years before starting his own firm, the Law Offices of Joseph V. Healy, where he mostly practiced personal injury law. 

But having his own firm also allowed him to act as legal counsel for Laborers Local 1092, a LiUNA local that largely represents laborers in the City of Chicago’s Department of Water Management. Healy still serves as 1092’s business manager.

“In both personal injury and labor and employment, you’re standing up for people who can’t always stand up for themselves,” says Healy. “The difference in my mind is that personal injury was kind of a microeconomic issue. You were helping one person who really needed the help, and you were doing very important work. 

“Moving to the labor side turned it into kind of a macroeconomic mission where you could help thousands of people with one contract.”

In his work in the labor movement, Healy works frequently with Bob Reiter ’03, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

“Having a partner in Joe Healy makes me a better leader,” Reiter says. “He’s had a great deal of experience directly representing members. Nothing is abstract to him. When he’s in a room working on these big-picture issues that affect workers, Joe has a good sense of how it’s landing with members as they sit at the kitchen table with their families.”

Reiter isn’t the only Chicago-Kent alum who Healy interacts with regularly. 

Healy says that Chicago-Kent’s Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace helps prepare many law students for meaningful careers in labor law in Chicago and beyond.

“Chicago-Kent was a great place for me,” says Healy. “It was a place I needed to be, and I know it’s helped a lot of my colleagues and a lot of people who do great things for workers. There are a bunch of people I went to Chicago-Kent with who are now in the labor movement and helping people every day.”

As he gears up for his next contract negotiation, which will affect more than 20,000 laborers working for private contractors in the Chicago area, Healy expects a few headaches. But he knows that keeping workers safe and fairly compensated is always worth it.

“It can be frustrating,” Healy says, “but I am usually happy each night with the work I put in that day.”