I would like to give my true appreciation to the membership of our great union in supporting my nomination and subsequent re-election to the position of Assistant Director “B”, Maintenance Division, APWU. I am proud to continue to serve our membership with my fellow officers of the craft; Director, Steve Raymer; Assistant Director “A”, Gary Kloepfer and National Representative-at-Large, Idowu Balogun. We will continue to work diligently for the betterment of the craft and to maintain our current advances well into the future.
As a member of the Leadership Team and the upcoming retirement of our current President, William “Bill” Burrus, we as a union are at another crossroads for a progressive agenda and change in leadership. I am proud to support our current Executive Vice President, C. J. “Cliff” Guffey for his election to become the next President of the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO. Cliff is a unionist who cares about the membership and all of society. He has the experience, knowledge and capability to lead our union into the next decade.
With Cliff’s elevation to the office of President, the current position Cliff will be vacating, the office of Executive Vice President will become vacant. Greg Bell, current Industrial Relations Director will seek this position and he also comes with 15 years of experience as one of the top four officers at the Headquarters level since leaving his position as President of the Philadelphia (PA) Area Local. He will make an excellent Executive Vice President.
With the retirement of Frank Romero, the position of Director of Organizing will be sought by Martha Shunn-King, Clerk Craft Director, Sarasota (FL) Local, former Sarasota Local President, 4 terms as Florida APWU President, with well over 20 years as an officer of the local and state and as a new member of the “Leadership Team”. Martha has a plan to organize our current membership based on the demographics of the communities of the locals through-out the country and to organize the private sector pre-sort houses, with upwards of 5,000 employees.
The remaining offices for this year’s upcoming election at the Headquarters are those of the craft officers. Two of those will be for both positions of the Motor Vehicle Services Division, incumbent Director, Robert “Bob” Pritchard and the position of incumbent Assistant Director, Mike Foster. Both are great unionists with the membership’s best interest in their hearts on every decision they make at the Headquarters level for the betterment of their craft. They have maintained the number of employees represented by the division to the approximate number of 13,000 with very little deviation from the early 90’s for the members of the craft. These two officers are the best choices for the members of the Motor Vehicle Services Division of the APWU.
With the retirement of Jim McCarthy, the Clerk Division Director will be sought by the current Assistant Director, Rob Strunk and he has ample experience to continue on the efforts and agenda for the advancement of the clerk craft well into the future and he will have no problem in unifying the newly elected Assistant Director(s), Lyle Krueth, Lamont Brooks and returning incumbent Pat Williams to continue to progress for better working conditions and employment opportunities for the future.
The remaining vacancy on the Executive Board to be filled in this year’s election for the National Officers and Executive Board will be that of; Southern Region Coordinator, which and the “Leadership Team” candidate for this position is Princella Vogel, President, Houston (TX) Area Local and she comes with the support of the National Business Agents in the Southern Region as the elected representative to the Executive Board for the NBA’s and will be an asset to the Executive Board.
The final position to be filled is that of APWU Health Plan Director. Incumbent Director, William “Bill” Kaczor is seeking re-election to another term as he continues to advance the agenda of the APWU for the betterment of our health care to the members, as well as other Federal Agency employees who rely on our the APWU Health Plan and our involvement with OPM and the administration of our plan as a participant in the Federal Health care program.
Again, I wish to thank-you for the honor of continuing to serve you into the next decade with all of our current officers of the Maintenance Division of the APWU and request that you give your support to each of the members of the Leadership Team for this years’ upcoming national APWU election of officers.