In his final President’s Report, at the Western Region council meeting on April 11 and 12, retiring President Bryan Martindale recounted his decades of leadership in UE, “a community that would shape my life entirely” from the moment he began working at the Stepan Chemical Company in Anaheim, California in 1980, at the age of 19. He recalled being recruited to run for chief steward when he was 20 years old, and the exhilaration of “discover[ing] at a young age that you possess a certain power when you gain the respect of the boss.”
He was quick to point out that “the only reason the boss respects you is because they fear you. They fear you because you stand on the shoulders of the rank‑and‑file members who elected you, who back you, and who trust you to represent them and stand with them in the struggle for collective liberation — understanding that none of us are free until all of us are free.”
Martindale described how he has served on every negotiating committee at Stepan since being elected chief steward, how he helped organize a Stepan sister shop in Fieldsboro, New Jersey, into UE Local 155, and how he gradually got more involved in the broader union. He was elected president of amalgamated UE Local 1421 in 2003 and served as an at-large delegate to the union’s General Executive Board for many years, until being elected as Western Region president in 2022.
UE General President Scott Slawson (left) embraces retiring Western Region President Bryan Martindale.
“UE taught me that leadership isn’t about standing at the front of the room,” he said. “It’s about listening. It’s about making sure every member — new or seasoned, loud or quiet, confident or unsure — knows their voice matters. Because in UE, democracy isn’t a slogan. It’s a practice. It’s how we build power. It’s a way of life.”
Martindale received a standing ovation after his report, and numerous tributes to his life of service to UE throughout the two days of the meeting. On Saturday morning, in a contested election, delegates chose Ramona Malczynski of Local 1466 as the region’s new president. (Delores Phillips, Local 1118, also ran for the office.)
“Organizing works”
Joe Rathke, Local 1103.
During shop reports, Local 1103 Chief Steward Joe Rathke reported on two recent victories in discipline and discharge cases. Local 1103 represents graduate workers at the University of Chicago, and, like all academic workplaces, the employer regularly claims that discipline and discharge are being done for academic reasons (i.e., related to the worker’s performance as a student) rather than employment reasons. As Rathke put it, “there is never not an excuse” to avoid union protections in such cases.
However, in two recent and particularly egregious cases, the local circulated petitions and got more than 100 people to march on the boss during the third-step meeting. This member action, Rathke reported, “changed the dynamics of that meeting” — and the next day the local won their first-ever settlement for a discipline and discharge case. The lesson, he said, is that “organizing works.”
Ben Lewis, Local 1105
Ben Lewis, the president of Local 1105, which represents graduate workers at the University of Minnesota, reported that his local has also been winning grievances by mobilizing members. “We learned a lot at the national convention,” he said, about “how we deal with bosses when the boss steps out of line,” and related how a march on the boss in the Chemistry department successfully revolved a grievance about workers not being granted time off that they deserved.
He also reported about how his local helped build a strong coalition of unions and workers in Minneapolis to respond to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invasion of their city. On the January 23 day of “no work, no school, no shopping,” Local 1105’s pressure helped convince the university to shut down. In addition to the university, he said, “we shut a large swath of the city down,” resulting in a significant draw-down of ICE forces.
Veronica McShane (left) and Emma Buckley (right), Local 1010.
Delegates also heard from UE’s newest local, Local 1010, the New Seasons Labor Union in Portland, Oregon. Local 1010 Co-Chair Emma Buckley and Communications Co-Chair Veronica McShane related how workers at ten New Seasons Market stores organized an independent union, which affiliated with UE last year. With UE, McShane said, New Seasons workers were “able to maintain the democratic process that we had built up” through independent, worker-led organizing. Buckley described how after the affiliation, “the company finally came to the table because we built up a credible strike threat,” and workers were able to win an “industry-leading” first contract in December.
Thai Nguyen, Local 1187.
Local 1187 President Thai Nguyen told the council meeting how his local, the only union shop in the Load King chain, has worked to preserve benefits in their contract which other locations don’t get, such as holidays and vacation counting towards overtime. “That’s our money, that’s our livelihood, and we’re not going to leave money on the table,” he said. He also noted that a few contracts ago, the local had won Lunar New Year as a holiday, which was important to the many Vietnamese workers in the shop. As a union, Nguyen said, “We are the voice for everyone, and it helps to be able to hear everyone too.”
Kellye Allen, Local 1107.
Kellye Allen, Local 1107, reported on her local’s recent successful negotiations, saying that the company “knew not to mess with us.” The local made safety their top issue in negotiations, she reported, after a member lost her hand in an accident at work. She urged UE members in all shops to “stop working” if they feel unsafe, and reminded delegates that “management does not control what we do, we control what we do.”
“Minnesota showed us the way”
In his National Officer Report, UE General President Scott Slawson told delegates, “Our union is in a much better place than it’s been in the last several years. We’re continuing to grow, we’re continuing to prosper.” He hailed the union’s recent growth, especially among young workers, as bringing “a surge of energy this union hasn’t seen in a long time,” and reminded the union’s new members that being in UE means “You will never fight alone.” He recounted how UE members from around the country participated in the Local 506 and 618 strike in 2023, when he was president of Local 506. “An injury to one of us is an injury to all of us.”
General President Scott Slawson.
Turning to national affairs, Slawson condemned the war in Iran as “a war that shouldn’t exist,” and pointed out that the billions being spent on the war could instead go to “healthcare, groceries, housing for workers.” He called the war “a distraction” as the federal government is discussing cuts to child care, Medicare and Medicaid, all while “people are having to work longer [and] health care is increasing in cost.” In short, Slawson said, “This is benefitting corporate industry instead of working-class people.”
Slawson warned that the Trump administration is “turning ICE into an armed militarized force that has been terrorizing entire communities.” The working people of Minnesota, he said, “showed us the way” to resist ICE. “They showed us the path. It’s important that we follow Minnesota’s lead.” He said that “The fightback is getting larger and larger and larger all the time,” as people say “we’ve had enough,” and declared, “It’s so important that we get out there during May Day, that’s our working-class chance to make our mark.”
Northwestern Postdocs Report on First Contract Struggle
Director of Organization Kimberly Lawson.
UE Director of Organization Kimberly Lawson gave the Organizing Report, reviewing organizing work that the union is engaged in across many sectors, including higher education, retail grocery, public sector, rail crew drivers, and manufacturing. She praised the delegates from Local 1010, noting that “They built their union on their own,” and added that, “For me, one of the great things about this local is that they’re not done organizing. They have been building relationships with workers in the stores that don’t yet have the union.”
Lawson introduced Jennifer Rakotomamonjy and Valentina Olivera from Local 1151, the Northwestern University Postdoc Union, who won an NLRB election last August. Both of them are on the local’s bargaining committee. Rakotomamonjy discussed the challenges facing the new local, including high turnover and a deal that Northwestern made with the Trump administration. Nonetheless, she said, they intend to bargain a first contract for “improving our working conditions and making our workplace safer, fairer, more supportive, and more human.”
She noted that “Supporting international workers is one of our top priorities,” and that some UE members at Northwestern face “the terrifying possibility of deportation to war-torn countries.” Olivera added that although the administration “has continued to drag its feet ... we are organizing to ensure that Northwestern bargains in good faith,” and described how they plan to pack the hall with members at the next bargaining session.
Delegates also heard a report from UE Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker on behalf of the General Executive Board task force on UE national officer elections.
Region Elections
In addition to electing Malczynski as president, delegates re-elected Vice President Larry Hopkins, Local 1177 and Secretary-Treasurer Mike Tomaloff, Local 1186.
Caroline Gambrel, Local 728, Andrew Moore, Local 770, Nandell Baines, Local 977, Olivia Jones, Local 896, Eric Escobar, Local 1018, Liam Sherman, Local 1043, Diana Martinez, Local 1077, Joe Rathke, Local 1103, Amy Harbourne, Local 1105, Kellye Allen, Local 1107, Delores Phillips, Local 1118, Vicky Yang, Local 1121, Mounica Sreesai, Local 1122, Alicia Black, Local 1135, Mike Plachy, Local 1139, Miya Bell, Local 1177, Beth White, Local 1186, Thai Nguyen, Local 1187, Sabir Sabir, Local 1421, and Caedmon Ragland, Local 1498 were elected to the region’s executive board; Gambrel, Escobar, Sherman, Harbourne, and Phillips were chosen as at-large representatives to the General Executive Board. Melissa Hamblin, Local 728 and Lexi Kenis, Local 1466 were re-elected as trustees, and Lauren Paul, Local 1186, was elected alternate trustee.
General President Scott Slawson swears in the new officers, trustees, and executive board of the Western Region. President-elect Ramona Malczynski is in the front row center, in black UE shirt and jeans.