“Our union is a powerful tool that we must utilize to attain a society and a world that is truly equitable and just for all,” declared Local 1186 Vice President Michele McCoy during the Western Region council meeting’s political action report. McCoy and Local 1107 President Kellye Allen were reporting on resolutions that their locals, both located in Wisconsin, had passed about defending labor and democratic rights in the upcoming midterm elections. McCoy also shared how members of her local have been collecting pledge cards in the local and in the community asking working people to pledge to vote for pro-worker candidates and to take action if the Trump Administration moves to interfere in the elections.

Zachary Strasberg and Tristan Larkin, Local 1466 and Caedmon Ragland, Local 1498 gave a presentation on efforts their locals, both of which represent graduate workers at public universities in New Mexico, have made to convince their state legislature to adequately fund health care for their members. Local 1122-Northwestern University Graduate Workers President Theo Clifford also gave a report on various political action struggles Local 1122 has been involved in.

Following the political action report, the region’s delegates passed a resolution [1] which declared that “the fight to maintain open, free, and fair elections ... [is] an opportunity to bring working people together to build an even stronger force for change in our country and the world.“

Nandell Baines Honored

The council meeting opened with a moment of silence for Local 977 President Nandell Baines, who passed away in August [2]. Photos of Baines were displayed on the projector; following the moment of silence Staff Coordinator J Burger, who worked closely with Baines, asked to address the meeting. He told the delegates that Baines "was an amazing person, always tough, always straight with members, [and] hated the boss, always hated the boss.”

He recalled how, after Baines had been elected to help negotiate the inclusion of her co-workers under the national UE contract with Hallcon, she arrived at negotiations with a copy of the contract “dog-eared and flagged and highlighted all over”; she “came into the meeting like she was an expert in the contract.”

“This union was with her to the very end and gave her something to fight for and she wouldn’t have it any other way,” Burger said. (Baines participated in national bargaining with Hallcon this past summer, even as her health was failing.) “To the very end she was fighting the boss.”

“There is no other union out there that fights as hard as this union”

UE General President Scott Slawson opened his remarks by recalling how he “was in a very undemocratic union 20 years ago,” one where the national union imposed a contract after Slawson and his co-workers had voted in down. But “when I came to UE, the day I walked in the door, my union steward came and found me. I knew right then and there this was a different union.” The steward invited him to a Local 506 meeting that week, where Slawson witnessed something he had never seen in his previous union: a member made a motion from the floor, which was debated and then voted on, rather than all decisions being imposed from above.

“There is no other union out there that fights as hard as this union,” he said, and it is UE's democratic process that fuels that fight, because “we work from the bottom up.”

Slawson denounced the “political absurdity” of the current administration in no uncertain terms. “We’re kidnapping world leaders, we’re murdering world leaders, we’re starting unnecessary wars, [and] we’re lining the pockets of the capitalist class,” he said. “We see our money time and time again being handed over to billionaires.” Meanwhile, “people can’t afford medicine, they can’t afford food, they can’t afford to put gas in their cars.”

But, he told the delegates, “We can drive change. It takes time, it takes energy, it takes focus, but mostly it takes us. ... Our democracy is being taken from us [but] we have the power, we have the numbers.

“It’s time to take oppressive employers on, it’s time to make them nervous. They attempt to distract us because they fear us. They’re afraid of us, and they’re afraid of losing control. It’s time to say in one voice of absolute solidarity, we’ve had enough!”

PTI Drivers Find Council Meeting “Really Inspiring”

During his remarks, Slawson introduced three rail crew drivers who work for PTI, one of Hallcon’s main competitors. They are part of a large group of PTI drivers nationwide who are seeking to leave their do-nothing company union and join UE. As Karen Warrior put it, “I joined UE because my alleged union UPSEU doesn’t exist.”

Becky Holmes explained how the organizing committee is “working hard trying to get everyone involved,” and Jonathan Ziegler said that being at the UE council meeting has been “really inspiring.” Although the workers are potentially facing a long struggle to organize with UE, Ziegler said that UE is working with the committee to recruit and train stewards “so that we have more enforcement, so that we have more protection,” even under the company union contract.

Locals “Hard at Work” Organizing and Preparing for Negotiations

Beth Miltko of UE Local 1010-New Seasons Labor Union, which represents workers at ten New Seasons Markets in and around Portland, reported that the local is “hard at work” organizing the remaining non-union stores, with a majority of cards signed at one store and majority support at another. “Next time you’ll be seeing them as delegates,” she said, to applause. She also reported on several recent grievance wins, which included restoring jobs for three wrongfully-terminated workers, winning disability accommodations, and reserving unjust discipline.

Helene Koumans and Nick Snyder, Local 1043-Stanford Graduate Workers Union, Joe Rathke, Local 1103-GSU at the University of Chicago, and Theo Clifford, Local 1122-NGWU all reported on measures their locals are taking to prepare for their next round of negotiations. (All three locals have contracts that expire in 2027.) Koumans said, “We have a lot to fight for,” and noted that Stanford has already put in writing that they are seeking to overturn Columbia, the National Labor Relations Board decision that gives graduate workers at private universities officially-recognized collective bargaining rights. But Local 1043 is preparing early, having assembled “a team of dedicated organizers and stewards” to serve as their contract action team well ahead of their contract’s August 2027 expiration date.

Rathke said that despite the fact that “we’re really facing an existential threat,” Local 1103 is running “full steam ahead on our contract fight,” collecting 1200 responses on an early bargaining survey last spring. “You’re not going to win by rolling over,” he added. “We have to be ready to fight.” Clifford reported that Local 1122 also has contract preparations underway, has conducted a contract survey, and is running a membership drive to prepare for attacks on union security.

Ben Lewis and Anna Martin-Boyle, Local 1105-GLU at the University of Minnesota reported that their local is also nine months out from the expiration of their contract, and have also established a contract action team and conducted a bargaining survey, with 600 responses so far. Although as a public university they are not under threat from the possible overturning of Columbia, they are facing “administration-driven austerity,” with their university recently announcing a $225 million budget cut. However, Lewis said, “the money is there,” with the university spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants; the crisis is “not a budget crisis [but] a crisis of management.”

Delegates from the three Hallcon locals in attendance gave their shop reports together, reporting both on negotiations to renew UE’s national contract with Hallcon and on grievance wins. Lauren Sims, Local 1077, said “they want to give us pennies” but “we’re going to fight until we can’t fight no more.” Erin Frimpong, Local 1177, reported that the locals mobilized over 200 members to join a Zoom bargaining call to put pressure on the company. London Steward, Local 1077, said that attending his first council meeting “is a great experience for me,” and predicted, “I truly believe we’re going to win.” Diana Martinez, Local 1077, and Ray Silva, Local 1477, also addressed the council.

New President, Secretary-Treasurer Sworn In

At the opening of the meeting, Region President Ramona Malczynski announced that she will be stepping down from her position; the region’s executive board chose Local 1186 President Michael Tomaloff, who currently serves as the region’s secretary-treasurer, to fill out the remainder of her term. They then selected Local 1043 President Liam Sherman to fill Tomaloff’s role as secretary-treasurer, and Beth White, Local 1186, to fill Sherman’s at-large seat on the national union’s General Executive Board.

In elections held on Sunday morning, delegates elected Aspen Heintze, Local 1010 and Ray Silva, Local 1477 to fill open seats on the region’s executive board, and Kala Collett, Local 728 and Solé Hall-Hamilton, Local 1498 to serve on the new elections committee that will oversee national officer elections next year. Collett and Hall-Hamilton will join Delores Phillips, Local 1118, who was appointed to chair the committee by the GEB, and Darrion Smith, Local 150, and Andy Vasilik, Local 506, who were elected by the Eastern Region earlier in the month. Following the elections, the new officers, board and committee members were sworn in by General President Scott Slawson.

The region also established two task forces, one to review the configurations of subregions and a second to review the region’s process for elections, and approved the use of the region's Member Action Fund to help members attend a Higher Education Labor United conference on AI in Chicago at the end of October.