Current job titles: Assistant Professor of Practice, Labor Studies and Employment Relations
Director, Labor Education Action Research Network (Rutgers LEARN)
Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
Local: Rutgers AAUP-AFT / Local 6323
Union positions: AFTNJ Higher Education Vice President
Vice President, Middlesex-Somerset Central Labor Council (2018-present)
Executive Committee Member, Rutgers AAUP-AFT (2019-present)
Chair, Postdoc Bargaining Unit, Rutgers AAUP-AFT (2018-21)
Founding President, GEU-UAW Local 6950 (2015-18)
Apprentice/Journeyman Carpenter, UBC Local 24 (2003-10)
Steward, UFT-AFT Local 2 (2001-03)
Laborer, LIUNA Local 547 (1995-99)
My union story: When I was a young child, my parents owned and operated a small country store and gas station that my father built in a very small town. We lived at the store and had little money to spare after the bills were paid. When I was in 7th grade, my parents filed for bankruptcy and sold the store. Thankfully, one of his customers encouraged him to go down to the carpenters union hall in a neighboring city where they were looking for more carpenters to work on the construction of a new power plant. Within a couple of years, our family was lifted from poverty to a middle-class lifestyle. I was able to get glasses and braces because of the union health insurance plan. My dad was able to rebuild his credit and build a new family home for us. For the first time, the idea of higher education was discussed, and I ultimately became the first family member to attend college.
Throughout my adolescent and college years, my parents encouraged me to seek out union jobs because they not only paid better wages but also secured dignity and treated workers with respect. During summers I worked as a carpenter’s assistant as a member of the laborers union or at a nursing home as a member of SEIU 1199. Once I graduated college, I worked in the NYC public schools as a member of the UFT-AFT Local 2. When my wife went back to college full-time in Connecticut, I went to work as a union carpenter myself for several years. When I returned to college in 2010 and began working as a teaching assistant, I helped to organize our local of the UAW, which was recognized in 2014 and I became the first local president in 2015.Each of these experiences has taught me the value of a union, whether in a blue-collar or white-collar occupation. So, when I started working at Rutgers in 2018, I immediately joined AFT Local 6323 and have been an active member ever since, including serving as an executive council member, a founding member of the climate justice committee, the chair of the postdoc bargaining unit, and a member of the legislative affairs committee.