John Gardiner
City and State: North Riverside, IL
Current Company and Position: Ironworkers Local #1, Chicago, IL, President/Business Manager.
Family: Wife, Lora; children: (3) sons (1) daughter - John, Joey, Peter, and Amelia.
First Job: First job started one week after 8th grade, 13 years old. Worked in a maintenance crew all summer at the Catholic high school I would attend that fall. The school kept half the pay the eight or nine kids on the crew earned, which is how we all literally worked our way through high school. Relieved our families of any monetary burden at all for our tuition. I held that job all fours’ years doing janitorial work two hours every day after school plus four hours every Saturday morning, and then all summer six hours every weekday doing building maintenance work (stripping and waxing floors, cleaning hundreds of light fixtures, etc).
What it taught me: My first job taught me that everything in life is earned. Very little will be given to you, and if something is given, there's a fair chance it can be just as easily taken away. I learned the values of contributing to our family's financial health while also getting a great education. And also developing a very strong work ethic which has stayed with me my whole life.
Best advice you could give someone starting out: Never let another person's negativity or poor work ethic drag you down. Be true to what you know is right. Hard work and a good attitude, especially eagerness to learn, will sustain you throughout your career.
Who is your hero and why? My father Thomas Gardiner (1928-2016). My father came from a life of poverty in County Clare, Ireland. Born in a stone constructed building on a farm, and raised in a home without indoor plumbing or any comforts at all, he dreamt of coming to America. He left home as a teenager and made his way to Chicago. Through nothing but hard work and perseverance, he established himself as a proud member of Ironworkers Local #1. He went on to marry my mother and have 13 children, and eventually 48 grandchildren at the time of his passing in 2016. He taught us all the virtues of integrity, honesty, and treating people with respect at all times. He also taught us the importance of humor and storytelling, both of which he was never short of. He made all of us in our family exactly who we are today. And for that I will be forever grateful.
Biography: John F. Gardiner is currently the President/Business Manager of Local #1 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Ironworkers. John began his career as a Local #1 Ironworker in 1989, following his father, uncle, two brothers, and a cousin into the trade. Beginning in 1999, John was elected by his fellow Local #1 members to the positions of Union Trustee, Recording Secretary, Business Agent, and Welfare Trustee before being elected as President in 2023. John also serves as a vice-president of the Chicago-Cook County Building Trades Council and is a member of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago.
John was born in July, 1969 in Chicago, Illinois to Thomas and Mary (Rudden) Gardiner. Thomas was a native of Lisdoonvarna, County Clare. Mary was born in Chicago to her father Michael Rudden, a native of Stradone, County Cavan. Mary's mother Delia Marie was born in Chicago to Thomas Ross who was from County Antrim and Delia Buckley, who was from County Kerry.
John has twelve brothers and sisters, of which four brothers are Union Ironworkers and one brother a Union Electrician.
John resides in the Chicago suburb of North Riverside with his wife Lora. John's oldest son John is a Licensed Therapist/Program Director at Positive Sobriety Institute in Chicago, his son Joey is a 10-year Local #1 Ironworker, and his two youngest kids are currently attending college (Amelia at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and Peter at the University of Iowa). John enjoys fishing and golfing as well as traveling, especially to Ireland.
