Below are statements for UAW 2322 members running for the 2019-22 term of the Executive Board of your Local. Ballots will be in the mail by the end of day on March 25th. Voting for the UAW 2322 Triennial election ends at 4:00 pm on April 22nd, so make sure you mail your ballot back with enough time to arrive by the deadline.
Contact the Elections Committee with any concerns at electionscommittee@uaw2322.org
Candidates for President
Anais Surkin
I am Anais and I’m running for president of UAW2322, along with the SPARK slate—Erin, Naria, Mitchell, Alyssa, Anna-Claire, Hannah and Danielle.
Over six years I have earned my co-workers’ trust and demonstrated commitment to worker power in various roles with increasing leadership responsibility in the union. Before being elected Financial Secretary and hired as Servicing Representative/Organizer for UAW2322, I served as GEO co-chair, Grievance Coordinator, and Bargaining Committee member.
I am qualified and ready to be president and am dedicated to the following strategies to facilitate better contracts and a stronger union:
- Cultivate participation, democracy and transparency across all shops. Members ARE the union.
- Organize and empower new workers/leaders to grow our union and strengthen coalitions.
- Remove barriers to participation for parents (like me).
- Prioritize action against white supremacy, ageism, patriarchy, heterosexism, ableism, Christian hegemony, and nationalism in our workplaces, union and communities.
I have experience and skills to ensure that, from the start, daily operations of UAW2322 run efficiently so that together we can focus on short and long-term campaigns, growing our union despite attacks on labor, strengthening our bargaining power, and addressing urgent issues aggressively and strategically.
VOTE to spark the future of democratic unionism!
Traci Ellithorpe
I am running for President and would like to introduce myself. I have an AA in early childhood education, a BS in Psychology. I have been employed by SPHS for almost 19 years and have been a UAW member for 15.5 years. I am a steward at Providence Hospital and have been at the bargaining table, and in attendance for labor management and membership meetings. I attended the picket at Providence and attended the State House to stand beside fellow workers. When Providence closed ART years ago, I was a part of the team that visited Representative Vega’s office, filed the ULP, and stood up against management, who’s agenda was to fire as many employees as possible so they wouldn’t have to pay severance packages , union busting.
I am passionate about workers being treated fairly and workplaces being safe. I would like to give voices back to our members and power to our union. Management can not continue to choose money over the welfare and safety of our members or the clientele we represent. Please vote for me, I will do my best to be available and helpful in getting your messages heard. Thank you.
In solidarity,
Traci Ellithorpe
Candidates for Vice President
Michelle Reardon
If nothing changes, nothing changes “ That’s why I’m running for Vice President. I’m Michelle Reardon and our local needs a change in leadership. Over the last 6 years I’ve seen our members’ rights be violated without any push back. I know of at least a few shops that are under represented. That’s unacceptable! Every dues-paying member must be represented. How many of you have sent emails or called our current leadership only to be left without a reply? That must change. I want to help with that. I’ve been the cochair of the Providence Hospital shop for 5 years. I’ve been on joint council also. I’ve bargained a contract, filed and won many grievances, and I educate members about their rights. I’ve met with legislators to bring attention to workers issues. I’ve helped other bargaining units fight for safer working conditions. Workers’ rights are being diminished and will soon be gone if we don’t stand together to fight for them. As a dues-paying member, I believe the change must start with an overhaul of our current E board. New leadership means new energy and dedication. So, a vote for me is a vote for you.
Erin Wilson
I am Erin and I’m running for re-election for vice-president of UAW2322, along with the SPARK slate—Anais, Naria, Mitchell, Alyssa, Anna-Claire, Hannah and Danielle.
I have spent over 7 years in positions on Joint Council and the Executive Board, and in that time, I’ve been proud to witness our Local’s dedication to coalition building, long-term planning, and member-driven campaigns. As a residential counselor and as a Servicing Representative, I’ve been a part of bargaining teams at 8 of our workplaces. We all have diverse job descriptions, but we have at least one thing in common – we know what it’s like to feel overworked and underpaid. The solution is to build our union’s power to influence change at a larger scale, and no one person or executive board can do that alone. I know it is no small or easy task to find time to dedicate to union activities. Let’s find solution together. Our union only gains that strength and bargaining power by having a strong and dedicated membership.
A union is never one person. Or one executive board. It’s all of us, collectively. That’s where we draw our strength. Please vote spark: to inspire workers and build power.
Candidates for Guide
Danielle Allessio
My name is Danielle Allessio, I’m running for UAW 2322 Executive Board Guide along with the SPARK slate – Anais, Erin, Alyssa, Hannah, Mitch, Naria and Anna Claire.
I am a UMass GEO member and Steward for the School of Education. I also presently serve as Guide on eBoard and I am interested in continuing to serve and support the membership.
In the past, I served on two GEO bargaining committees and have also served as the GEO Database Coordinator and as Membership Coordinator. In these roles I had various responsibilities that ultimately brought our workplace to a place of greater power.
I believe the most important issues facing the Local are unifying members and shops around common issues and goals such as working conditions, support for family issues and health care. My vision for the UAW Local is to strengthen job security across units. I am passionate about creating a diverse, inclusive space for membership that unifies all workers across shops. I want to foster a strong, participatory member-driven union by educating members about their rights as workers, including Weingarten rights and the grievance and bargaining processes.
I would be honored to receive your vote for Guide.
John McGrath
Please Vote for me, John McGrath, for Guide by 4/22/2019!
I’ve been working at my shop thirty years and seen that we have now been sold out at the Local, State and National levels. Workers have sometimes been getting betrayed by their own and other unions to facilitate personal power, paychecks and pensions. Nothing gets fixed until we make our own side walk their talk of Solidarity and Unity. In contrast, our Public, Profit and “Non-Profit” employers stick together and buy our politicians while we lose ground.
The workers of the middle class stand on the shoulders of giants who fought and some died to build the Labor Movement. If we remember and respect the price that they paid maybe we won’t have to repeat history. Labor Leaders have failed us the last 40 years. They don’t want anyone in office that will say this publicly and hold them accountable. Their priority seems to be, “manage” the decline of Unions long enough to get theirs and get out. They indoctrinate the next generation by incorporating them into the dysfunctional status quo leadership that created this mess. We cannot afford to let this continue. Corruption must end.
MAIL YOUR BALLOT!
Candidates for Trustee (3 seats)
Krysty Cresenzi
Anna-Claire Steffen (Anna-Claire Simpson)
I’m Anna and I’ve been a member of our local for eight years, and Grievance Coordinator for GEO for the last two. My union is why I can work and have children while studying at UMass, and my investment and activism in the union is shaped by a sense of duty to give back and support my fellow union members across the local in their efforts towards fair and just working conditions. I believe in our collective ability to empower each other as workers in diverse workplaces and working conditions, as this is what will help us win the future we deserve. As grievance coordinator, I see firsthand what we are up against and I’m responsible for coming up with creative solutions to addressing worker oppression. I have been able to leverage this experience in contract bargaining to expand protections around discrimination, exclusion of workers from the Unit, and access to benefits and resources. I have edited newsletters, organized actions, served on GEO, RAPMU, and Post Doc bargaining committees. My experience supporting and empowering workers with unique needs and problems across shops inspires me to continue to organize and build our local with the Spark slate. Let’s build power together!
Sharon Bernardos
Alyssa Goldstein
I’m Alyssa, and I’m running for the position of Trustee on the Local 2322 executive board. Here’s what I and the others on the SPARK slate (Anais, Erin, Danielle, Hannah, Mitch, Naria, and Anna Claire) believe in:
- Winning substantial contract improvements
- Encouraging rank-and-file members to step up and become leaders
- Building worker power in the workplace and community
- Building ever-stronger bonds of solidarity amongst workers in each shop, between shops in our local, and between different unions
- Rank-and-file education, empowering all union members to know and defend their rights in the workplace
- Democracy and transparency
I have served as GEO co-chair for the past two years, and as a Trustee on the executive board for the last one and a half years. I was the Sociology department steward and a representative on Joint Council for the three years prior. I served on the bargaining committee for the last two rounds of GEO contract bargaining.
What those of us on the SPARK slate have in common is a commitment to smart, strategic thinking combined with a bold vision of what unions can and should be. I would be honored to receive your vote for Trustee.
Candidates for Recording Secretary
Naria Sealy
I am Naria and I am running for Recording Secretary at our local. I am currently the Co-Chair of the Resident Assistants and Peer Mentor unit, working towards building undergraduate students’ worker rights, increasing wages and setting precedents for benefits.
Our local is important to me, it offered a route to my growing insight into the political and systematic struggle for rights that as workers we deserve. In position as recording secretary, I plan to push for:
- Transparency in union business.
- Stronger interpersonal relations within our local.
- Bring together all our shops to support one another during individual contract bargaining periods.
- Restructuring of local division of labor to provide shops with more individual support.
- Organizing more workers to grow the size of our local.
I share so many of these hopes and plans with the SPARK slate – Anais, Erin, Alyssa, Hannah, Mitch, Danielle and Anna Claire. Please cast your vote for these amazing people. SPARK is about people coming together to make change, unified and electric. They are truly the face of a local that cares and is unafraid to be ambitious with our goals, especially as our economic injustice runs rampant throughout our country.