Changing of the guard By ROBERT KIRKHAM/Buffalo News
Two powerful union leaders are leaving their posts, bringing new blood - though not exactly a new generation - to some of the area's largest labor organizations.
Louis J. Thomas, director of the United Steelworkers of America District 4 in Buffalo, retires this week, clearing the way for assistant director William Pienta to take over.
And Thomas W. Dziedzic, president of Teamsters Joint Council 46, has turned over that job to successor Ronald G. Lucas, along with the presidency of his 5,000-member union, Teamsters Local 264. The joint council includes 14,000 Teamsters at five local units in Western New York and Rochester.