UE’s Western Region met on September 28 and 29 just across the Ohio river from Cincinnati. This meeting marked the first time that the Western Region held a council meeting in the eastern part of the region since Ohio joined the Western Region in 2020.
It also marked the first time that members of UE Local 704, a small local whose members handle liquid and bulk commodities like bulk salt, fertilizer, petroleum, and chemicals on the river in Cincinnati, had participated in a Western Region council meeting. During his shop report, Local 704 President Matt Hembree told council delegates that his local’s recently negotiated contract has made the Cincinnati UE members the highest-paid hourly employees at their company, Watco.
“Build yourselves a stewards’ network”
Kevin Sites, Local 1186
Leaders of many locals spoke about successful efforts to enforce their contracts. Local 1186 Chief Steward Kevin Sites reported on the successful resolution of several grievances, including a grievance over a manager doing bargaining unit work in which the whole department got involved, and one which resulted in an unjustly terminated member being reinstated with full back pay. “Build yourselves a stewards network,” he advised members of other locals.
Local 1107 Financial Secretary Kellye Allen told delegates how, after her local successfully won reinstatement and full back pay for a member terminated after the company rejected her FLMA documentation, the company did the same thing to another union member weeks later. “They think they can rule us and run us and run us over, and we have news for them: it’s not happening,” she said. In response, Local 1107 members organized a march on the boss.
Local 1187 President Thai Nguyen reported on his local’s ongoing effort to train new management to follow the contract. “When they’re right, they’re right, and when they’re wrong, we fight,” he said. “We’ve got to stay on top of management, stay strong, keep fighting.” Local 1018 President Jacqueline Palacios said that because “our members have been very good about letting us know about any issues,” her local has been able to resolve those issues before they enter the formal grievance process, and Judith Lopez, Local 1421’s chief steward at Tree Island, told how her local had successfully fought off management’s attempt to impose onerous work schedules.
Delegates from two of UE’s new graduate worker locals, Local 1103-Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago and Local 1122-Northwestern University Graduate Workers, reported that, after settling first UE contracts this past spring, they are “in a lot of fights with the boss” in the words of Local 1122-NUGW President Emma Kennedy. In late May, Northwestern graduate workers marched on the boss to demand restoration of the advance funding that they rely upon to complete their degrees. “Our stewards and our organizers have returned $240,000 into the pockets of our members through organizing,” Kennedy said. Local 1122 is also conducting a workplace safety campaign and working hard to respond to university’s “bogus” demonstration policy.
Local 1103-GSU President Renée Fonseca said that after settling their first contract, Local 1103 has established a network of 130 stewards, who are engaged in fights over “who is and isn’t a worker,” as the university has been changing job titles to try to remove workers from the unit. The local has also been working to organize “thousands more of our colleagues on campus,” post-docs and techs. “We’re beyond excited to continue fighting the boss,” Fonseca concluded.
“Since we have decided to fight we are creating a chance”
On a more bittersweet note, the council meeting also heard reports from two UE locals who are facing the closure of their facilities. Local 1008 President Joel Faypon reported how his local, which represents workers at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services center in California, was repeatedly lied to by both their employer, contractor ITC Federal, and USCIS itself, about plans to lay off members and eventually close their facility. USCIS currently plans to close the center in November; however, the local is fighting the decision.
Dawn Meyer, Local 808 (left) and Joel Faypon, Local 1008 (right) report about the struggle to save jobs at USCIS.
“If we do nothing then we have already lost,” said Faypon. “Since we have decided to fight we are creating a chance.” Local 1008 has been holding weekly rallies since June to demand that USCIS reverse its decision, where they have received coverage by several news outlets and support from other local organizations, congregations and unions, including Clergy and Laity for Economic Justice, UNITE HERE Local 11, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
Faypon was joined at the front of the room by Dawn Meyer, president of Local 808, Local 1008’s sister local in Lincoln, Nebraska, which has held several solidarity rallies, and are also facing the relocation of their work to non-union locations. “Joel, you are one of the bravest people I know,” said Meyer. “You helped support us when we decided to start our union.” Meyer also reported that her local has been fighting various “ridiculous edicts” from USCIS.
“I refuse to become invisible,” declared Meyer. “I will stand with 1008 until the bitter end.” Delores Phillips, Local 1118, and Kevin White, Local 728, locals that also represent federal contractors, also pledged their solidarity with Local 1008 in their shop reports.
“I never imagined myself witnessing the end of my local,” Faypon told the delegates. “I’m going to go down with the ship.”
Chuck Davis, Local 777, gave a report about the closure of the cereal plant in Lancaster, Ohio, where he has been working for over 47 years. The plant ended production on September 20, and was scheduled to close on October 4.
“It’s been rough,” he said, but noted that without the support of UE, workers would be in much worse shape. He also praised the efforts of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown to aid the locals in securing a decent severance package.
“This is, unfortunately, my last meeting with UE,” said a visibly emotional Davis, “and I want to thank you guys for all that you’ve done.” Delegates gave both Davis and Faypon standing ovations.
“We change the balance of power through shop struggles”
Director of Organization Mark Meinster, in his report to the council meeting, called the current moment “a tremendously eventful time for UE, full of possibility but also challenges.” He explained the positive effect on the union’s finances of the tremendous growth in membership in the past few years, which is allowing the union to expand and strengthen its staff while giving locals the tools they need to take on fights and win. “Our faith in the capacity of workers to ... run their own union has paid off,” he said.
UE Director of Organization Mark Meinster gives his report while (left to right) Western Region President Bryan Martindale, Vice President Larry Hopkins and Secretary-Treasurer Mike Tomaloff listen.
He described how “Our grad locals have been working hard to build themselves, to lay a foundation, to consolidate the victories they’ve won in their first contracts.” They are “engaged in a ton of tough fights,” especially over freedom of speech and expression, and “Increasingly these are fights that are led by workers themselves. … These are vibrant local unions with broad participation, and that is the key to pushing back these employers.”
He also reviewed the General Executive Board’s statement on the elections. “We don’t think either party really represents the interests of workers,” he said, but “in the meantime, this election is going to determine what grounds we’re standing on as we wage fights against our employers for the next four years. Donald Trump has proven through both words and actions that he is an absolute threat” to the labor movement. Nonetheless, he said, “Starting the day after that election it is all of our tass ... to start talking about an alternative, to start talking about how we move past this two-party trap.”
In his organizing report, Meinster also introduced members of UE graduate worker locals at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota, both of which are currently preparing for possible strikes as they bargaining for first UE contracts. “We have to be strike-ready to win first contracts, especially in this sector,” Meinster said.
General Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker gave a presentation on the General Executive Board’s recommendation about restoring full financial autonomy to UE’s regions. Since 2020, when the previous three geographic regions were consolidated into two, the National Union has been handling the regions’ finances; now that the union is growing, the GEB is recommending that the regions resume handling their own finances as of July 1, 2026. This proposal will be further discussed at the spring regional council meetings.
Political Action and International Solidarity
In his president’s report, Western Region President Bryan Martindale denounced “the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel,” paid for by “our tax dollars.” He called it a moral issue, not a political issue. “As global citizens we must stand up against injustice wherever it occurs. An injury to one is an injury to all.”
Turning to the upcoming election, Martindale said, “This November, we have a lesser of two evils choice to make at the polls once again.” He said that under a second Trump administration, workers’ rights to organize would be “on the chopping block,” noting that Trump has a record of appointing “dangerous anti-worker, religious-zealot judges to the courts” and anti-worker officials to the labor board.
While he said he is much more comfortable giving his vote to Harris than to Biden, he also said that Democrats will not make the kind of fundamental changes to workers’ rights and healthcare that working people need, and that “We should seize this moment and form a real labor party.”
The region voted to endorse three candidates for office. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who has been a strong leader against job-killing “free trade” deals and who provided crucial assistance to members of Locals 718 and 777 when their plant closing was announced last year, was endorsed for re-election. The region also endorsed Angelina Cruz, who is running for a state assembly seat in Racine, Wisconsin, and Jimmy Pham, who is running for a state assembly seat in Orange County California. Field Organizer Irene San Román gave a report on the assistance given to UE Local 1008 in their fight against layoffs by a variety of Democratic lawmakers in Southern California.
Kevin White, Local 728 and Renée Fonseca, Local 1103 spoke about their participation in the May worker-to-worker exchange with UE’s Mexican ally the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT). White said that what he took away from the trip was “not only how different the cultures are, but also what we all share.” When workers talk to each other across borders, he said, they realize that “we all go through these same things.” Fonseca said that cross-border exchanges are “really important in reminding us as members” that when jobs are moved to other countries like Mexico, “it’s about bosses trying to find the cheapest place they can go,” not other workers “stealing” our jobs.
On Sunday morning, delegates elected Caroline Gambrel, Local 728, Vicky Yang, Local 1121, and Malik Grant, Local 1135 to fill vacant seats on the region’s executive board. Grant was also elected to fill the seat on the General Executive Board being vacated by Kevin White, Local 728, who resigned in order to accept a position on UE staff. Gambrel also ran for the GEB seat.
Western Region executive board members (left to right) Kellye Allen, Malik Grant, Caroline Gambrel and Vicky Yang take the oath of office. (Allen was elected in April, but was not present to take the oath at that meeting.)