Stories from our Supporters: Esteban Vera, Jr., Business Manager, Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 57
By Jane M. Von Bergen Esteban Vera Jr. will never forget the night that John “Jay” Johnson, a well-liked member of Laborers’ Local 57, fell to his death in January 2016. “Johnson was on the night shift,” recalled Vera, Local 57’s business manager, as he sat in his office in Philadelphia, his own well-worn hard-hat in a place of honor on a bookshelf behind him. Johnson, a father of three, worked with a crew on Pier 78 in South Philadelphia. He fell through an uncovered hole in the decking into the water below and drowned. Divers found his body hours…