Convention delegates elected Adrian Dueñas, business manager of Local 18007 in Chicago, to the UWUA’s executive board.
Dueñas has spent his entire career at Peoples Gas, starting fresh out of high school in 1991. In 2001, Local 18007 endured a three-week strike against the company. “It was hard for everyone, and I realized then that if I wanted to make a difference, I had to get involved.”
A few years later, Dueñas became a steward, then a trustee. In 2011, he was elected vice president/treasurer and in 2018 was appointed business manager, the local’s highest office. To this day, the memory of 2001 informs his leadership: “I never want to see members go through anything like that again.”
Dueñas recently spearheaded 18007’s seasonal to full-time apprenticeship program and has also been active in the local’s UMAP veterans’ program and an instructor at Power for America (P4A). He currently serves as a P4A trustee.
As an executive board member, Dueñas looks forward to exchanging experiences with representatives from other parts of the country. He recognizes the value of learning from diverse perspectives and plans to share the wealth of knowledge gained from his 32 years with Local 18007.
Dueñas’s life journey reflects the American dream, having been born to immigrant parents in Chicago’s southside. With the support of his wife Tania, to whom he has been married for 28 years, he has raised two sons, Salvador and Adrian, Jr.