EXPERIENCE? EXPERIENCE IS AS EXPERIENCE DOES.

EXPERIENCE has come up in the election campaign for Mayor of Toledo. I've wondered what I'd want Y'all to know about my own EXPERIENCE as I would relate it to putting myself forward as a candidate for the office.

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EXPERIENCE is not just being present, not just sitting on the dias making motions and seconding motions, not just working on Main Street events, but building the language, setting down the language, of contracts and conditions similar to zoning ordinances, and other ordinaces too. Reviewing the contract with the city workers will be natural for me.

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I decided to take newspaper ads in the Yaquina Wavelength on October 15th, 22nd, 29th to point out that EXPERIENCE I have that I want to share with Y'all, being retired for some years now, and because I am nearly 68 years of age, I find that my EXPERIENCE beginning back to my first union job some 48 years ago, is all of use even today.

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Elected EXPERIENE that is. EXPERIENCE as a union elected leader,

Shop Steward =10 years,

Grievance Committeeman 10 years,

a member of the Executive Committee 10 + years,

member of the Negotiating committee 3 times running ober 9 years,

and a holder of positions within not only the local union I belonged to,

United Steelworkers Local 4335 in Quincy, Massachusetts,

but also committees within the

Boston AFL-CIO,

and the Eastern Massachussetts AFL-CIO.

All those years in the local union and positions servng a membership that slowly dwindled from around 2400 members to a low of 1600 members.

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My, and my brother union members serving on the

Negotiating Commitee

had the highest and greatest of achievements during the 3 terms I served:

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NO STRIKES!

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One work stoppage that lasted only 1/2 hour in my + 10 year local union career.

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Good contracts, good wages, good benefits, and our members and their families achieved a higher standard of living and sent their kids off to collge.

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As Shop Steward I had to resolve disputes between union members and management, usually foreman, and shop supervisiors, on the shop floor to avoid work stoppages and set down in writing any unresolved grievances and/or issues to be resolved in the written Grievance Proceedure. I had to calm things down on the shop floor, so the union was always in compliance with our contract to work, to provide the labor, and if we could, to settle things in initial face to face meetings, and then go to the written and formal hearings set down in Step Two, Step Three, and Step Four or the Grievance Proceedure only when we had to.

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When elected

Mayor of Toledo

I am prepared to bring to the table the same strong leadership skills learned in union orgaizing classes, to apply law as I was taught in union sponsored Labor Law seminars and classes at the Harvard School of Business held in conjunction with Harvard Law School. We learned that the goal for a unionist should be to get fair wages and benefits for the union members, and to lead our members in giving a fair day's labor for a fair day's wages, as our individual contracts over the years spelled out.

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I have the

EXPERIENCE

I will need for the job of

Mayor of Toledo.

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The greatest

EXPERIENCE

I bring to the office is knowing when to call in individual experts in any field I feel a need to. In unions we have been doing that for a long time. We didn't get hung up on our own level of education or expertise, we felt no shame in asking for expert help. And I will not as Mayor either!