As part of the cultural programming for the UE 77th Convention, the National Union asked retired UE NEWS Managing Editor Alan Hart to compile a selection of photographs from the last decade and a half of UE history.
NEW (11/8/21): Video of Brother Hart’s remarks to the convention can now be viewed at the bottom of this page.
Local 204 members in Taunton, MA confront Haskon human resources manager Steve Lautenschlager over the company’s unacceptable healthcare proposal in 2006 negotiations. The union beat back the company proposal. (Photo by Peter Knowlton.)
An unexpected one-day strike by Raleigh sanitation workers in 2006 won many of their immediate demands, and energized Local 150’s organizing among North Carolina municipal workers and other public employees.
One of the most dramatic and inspiring labor struggles of the past 20 years was the five-day plant occupation of Republic Windows and Doors by the members of Local 1110 in Chicago, December 2008. (Photo by Jonathan Gomez)
Local 1110 members at a UE rally for healthcare and labor law reform during the 2009 Convention in New Haven, CT. Local 1110 members Raul Flores, Ricky Macklin and Jose Sanchez participated, along with Tina Jendrewski, a former leader of UE Local 299 at Circuit-Wise.
UE leaders from Chicago and North Carolina outside the U.S. Capitol, ready to go lobby their members of Congress during UE’s 2010 Political Action Conference.
UE members rally to Save Social Security during the 2010 Political Action Conference. (Photo by Ron Flowers.)
Local 506 members have long participated in Erie’s Martin Luther King Day march, including 2013, when the march took place during a typical Lake Erie blizzard. (Photo by the late Mark Haller.)
Local 506 members in Erie at monster rally for a just contract, during 2011 GE national negotiations.
Local 506 stewards march out of the Erie GE plant to join a protest for pension increases by the Retirees Association of General Electric (RAGE) in May 2011, just before the start of GE negotiations.
Workers win the Battle of Ohio, November 2011. Members of UE Locals 718 and 777 in Lancaster celebrate the resounding labor victory in a referendum overturning a recently-passed state law that would have destroyed public employee collective bargaining. Members of several Ohio UE locals, both private and public sector, volunteered for the successful campaign, going door to door to gather signatures and convince voters to vote no. And yes, that is a real cannon.
Local 506 and 618 members struck for nine days in February and March 2019, in the most extreme winter weather, and defeated the attempt by Wabtec, new corporate owner of the massive Erie GE plant, to gut the wages, benefits and working conditions the union had won over 80 years of bargaining.
After the University of Iowa President tried to deflect Local 896’s wage demands by telling grad students that they waste too much money on “lifestyle” amenities such as computers and cell phones, members staged a “type-in” protest, with old typewriters from thrift stores. This was during 2015 contract negotiations.
Southern Solidarity: A delegation from Local 170 - West Virginia joined Local 150 - North Carolina at the 2012 Labor Day March in Charlotte.
Local 1177 members who work at Renzenberger (now Hallcon) rally for their first UE contract, 2012.
Alan Hart is the retired managing editor of the UE NEWS, a position he held from 2006 until his retirement in 2017. He first joined UE in October 1973 when he started working at the Erie GE plant, and for 13 years he served Local 506 in positions including shop steward, executive board member, and managing editor of Local 506’s monthly UNION NEWS. He joined the UE field staff in the 1980s, working on organizing campaigns in numerous places and servicing UE locals in Connecticut, Ohio and Indiana.