John Poroda, Secretary-Treasurer, Local 102 – “The reason I feel strongly about the mission statement is because of the aging workforce that we have. It’s time we got the young people involved so they can see what’s important, what’s good about the union.”
Chauffe Schirmer, Financial Secretary, Local 127 – “If you think about all of the benefits and all of the protections that workers have fought for through our history, if we aren’t protecting the ability of everyone to go home safe to their families every single day, then it doesn’t matter the hours we work or the conditions we work in, if it is not done safely then it doesn’t matter.”
Vincent Vales, Local 1-2 – “We should get our youth involved. Let them know what we’ve learned so they can build on it for the future.”
Lou DeGonsaque Vice President, Local 393 – “To build upon our union brothers and sisters from the past who improved our job conditions. We are here to build upon what they accomplished.”
Brian Hannon, Local 369, –“Protecting our legacy is huge. It’s very important for the transfer of knowledge for the newer members coming in. They will have a standard operating procedure to work with and then can work on their own legacy to leave for others.”
Leroy Huckelberry, Local 223 – “Our future is the people who are coming behind us. My job is to make sure the new union members know that all the benefits we have were not gifted to us. The biggest thing to me is to help them understand that people died to get the contracts that we have today.”
Jim Davis, Local G-555 “We are first responders. We are the first to emergencies, protecting the public, keeping things safe. We protect our legacy by relaying to all new employees the importance of making sure they are properly trained to do their jobs safely so they can go home to their families at night.”
Mercurio Moore, Local 132 – “Our legacy started way before me with all of the people who put in the time and effort to make sure all of our members are safe. I want to instill this in our new employees. There are a lot new people who are in the union and I would like to instill in them the importance of keeping a safety culture.”
Cliff Deem, Local 425
– “We are protecting our legacy by training our members in the safety practices that the UWUA fought tooth and nail for. Our future depends on incoming union members getting involved with the safety culture and carrying on the legacy of those who laid the groundwork by striving for minimal or zero reportable work injuries.”
Will Breton, Local 257 – “We need to train and transfer knowledge to the younger people who are coming into our union. Communicate to them what we went through in the past so they don’t have to redo what earlier utility workers worked so hard for to get where we are today.”