UPS executive, labor union leader to be honored at Archdiocese’s Annual Business & Labor Reception

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, and the Archdiocese of Newark’s Office for Youth & Young Adult Ministry will honor two local leaders at the 31st Annual Business & Labor Recognition Reception on Tuesday, March 5, at 6 p.m. at The Grove in Cedar Grove.

The honorees this year are Matthew Loughlin, vice president of east region labor relations at UPS, and Mike Hellstrom, Jr., vice president and eastern region manager for Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).  

The annual event, known as the Cardinal’s Business & Labor Recognition Reception, benefits the Archdiocese of Newark’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and Retreat Center in Kearny, which annually serves more than 35,000 young people of every race and religion. Since its inception in 1994, the annual gathering of representatives from the business sector and labor unions has raised more than $4 million to benefit the children of the Archdiocese with programs such as CYO Camp, retreats, Scouting, CYO Athletics, and more.

“Mr. Loughlin and Mr. Hellstrom are both men of great character whose dedication to their employees and members – as well as the community – sets them far and above others,” said Tom Conboy, director of the Office for Youth and Young Adult Ministry. “These men join the ranks of our state’s most stellar business and labor leaders, and we look forward to recognizing them at our gala.”

This year’s business honoree, Matthew Loughlin, is the youngest of eight siblings who was educated in parochial schools in Bergen County. He graduated from Emery University’s Executive Business Program and holds labor relations certifications from the University of Michigan and the Cornell School of Labor Relations.  

Loughlin has worked for UPS for 38 years, having started as a trailer loader. In his current position as vice president of east region labor relations, he oversees approximately 150,000 employees.  Loughlin also serves as leader of the St. Peter the Apostle Cornerstone Program for Men in River Edge.

This year’s labor honoree, Mike Hellstrom, Jr., serves as vice president and eastern region manager of LIUNA, representing some 45,000 unionized workers in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Puerto Rico.

A second-generation laborer, Hellstrom has been a member of LIUNA for 40 years, having started as a rank-and-file member of then-Laborers Local 37. He was soon hired as one of the local’s first full-time organizers. Prior to his current position, he served as the business manager of the 17,000-member Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and Long Island, whose affiliate locals represent the construction, asbestos and hazardous materials, and recycling and sanitation industries as well as the lay faculty at New York Catholic Schools. Hellstrom is also a Navy veteran who served in the Persian Gulf and Somalia from 1985 to 1989 aboard the USS Spiegel Grove.

For more information about the Cardinal’s Annual Business & Labor Recognition Reception, visit www.rcan.org/cardinals-business-labor-recognition-reception. 

Featured image: Honorees are: (left) Mike Hellstrom, Jr., vice president and eastern region manager for Laborers’ International Union of North America; and (right) Matthew Loughlin, vice president of east region labor relations at UPS.