President Bruce Klipple

Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker

Director of Organization Bob Kingsley

As of Tuesday, November 1, UE's team of national officers has changed. Following the election of officers at our national convention September 25-29 and the retirement of President John Hovis, our new national officers are General President Bruce Klipple, General Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker, and Director of Organization Bob Kingsley.

Bruce Klipple, who has been UE's secretary-treasurer for the past 10 years, came into UE as a young worker at Pennsylvania Pump and Compressor in Easton, PA. His co-workers in UE Local 141 elected him as shop steward, trustee, and eventually as local president. In 1985 Klipple joined the UE staff as a field organizer, and five years later became an international representative. He worked with locals from New York to North Carolina in contract negotiations, organizing campaigns, strikes and plant closing struggles. As UE secretary-treasurer he has overseen financial and other reforms to enable the union to operate more effectively, and directed the union's work in political action, communications, international solidarity and other areas. He has also participated in the last two rounds of GE negotiations, and he will head up those negotiations in the future.

Andrew Dinkelaker joined the union in Vermont in the mid-1990s as a member of Local 223, and became an organizer in 1997, working in New England, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other areas, both on new organizing and in assisting UE locals in bargaining and other activities. He was elected president of UE District 6 president in 2005, and a year later, when the districts were merged into regions, he was elected Eastern Region president. He has placed a high priority on membership education and on improving the union's use of new technologies. The videos he has made of UE activities have been very popular at conventions, regional meetings, and on the internet.

Bob Kingsley remains the union's director of organization, a position he was first elected to in 1992. Kingsley is now the longest-serving of our current national officers. Kingsley came into the labor movement as a newspaper reporter. He lost his newspaper job during a 15-month strike, when the employer "permanently replaced" the union members, and came to work for UE as a field organizer. He organized for UE first in Vermont and later in South Dakota, where he spearheaded the union's long and wide-reaching campaign on behalf of Litton Microwave workers. In 1987 he became UE's political action director, and at the 1992 UE convention, delegates elected him a national officer. Kingsley has directed organizing work in UE's traditional manufacturing base, but also guided the union's expansion into organizing among public sector and service sector workers, helping to bring many new locals and thousands of members into UE's ranks.