Who ARe WE?

Tara Mccauley

Candidate for General President

I’ve worked in the labor movement for twenty years.

I am currently a UE International Representative based in Philadelphia. I’ve been honored to work for UE for over seven years, servicing locals in manufacturing, rail crews, public sector workplaces, graduate work, and other sectors. I work in a number of states on the east coast.

Before UE, I was on staff with AFSCME for nine years, doing servicing and new organizing, primarily with public sector workers. I’ve also worked as a community organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, supporting coal miner new organizing. I’ve done additional years of community organizing in other public health and social justice organizations.

I earned a master’s degree in labor studies in 2005 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While there, I was elected treasurer in my union, GEO-UAW Local 2322, and I participated in our strike for a strong contract.

George WAksmunski

Candidate for Director of Organization

I have humbly given my life in service to the principles of our union.

I have been with UE since 1989, when I joined as a member. I was vice president of an independent union at Armstrong Store Fixtures Association, where I started in 1984. In 1989 we affiliated with UE, and I was elected the first president of UE Local 651. As a president and rank-and-file member, I immediately went to my first of two UE National Conventions as a delegate. I spoke on the floor at both conventions.

I joined the UE staff in 1991. In my 30 years on UE staff, I did everything from working with independent unions to affiliate with UE, to helping with a variety of new organizing campaigns, to negotiating contracts at multinational corporations and mom-and-pop shops. I was present when UE Local 150 had its first convention and received its charter.

In 2021, I was elected as the UE Eastern Region President, which is the role I have today. As Eastern Region President, I have personally visited 42 of 46 locals in the region. My focus has been to educate our members, communicate, and find prospective leaders. I also chaired the resolutions committee at the last two national conventions.

I have attended every General Executive Board meeting as a Regional President and also hold the position of National General Vice President as part of that role. I have been outspoken with my input and perspectives.

Chris wilson

Candidate for Secretary-Treasurer

I am a rank-and-file graduate worker in mathematics and a steward for UE Local 1103 at UChicago. I have experience serving as an officer, bargaining committee member, and core organizing leader in my local.

I got involved with my local in 2021; at that time, we were an unrecognized independent union, and our organizing committee had roughly five active members. I became a core organizing leader, and we grew our committee through a successful campaign to cancel a $1,200 student fee. That campaign culminated in a strike threat, which I helped organize.

I was elected local Financial Secretary in late 2021. In this role, I established a dues system that allowed us to cover significant organizing expenses without external support. We covered office rent, printing costs, hired part-time staffers from our unit, and established a hardship fund for members. By the time we settled our first CBA, we had over 350 members voluntarily contributing with an annual income of roughly $74,000.

During this period, I also guided our local to affiliate with UE and begin a union recognition campaign. I continued to play a core role, mentoring other new leaders and overseeing organizing in my department. I was the primary person responsible for building our worker lists in the Broadstripes database. I also began training other locals organizing into UE on financial practices and database management. 

We went public with our recognition campaign in Fall 2022, signing up over 1,000 workers on the first day. We built supermajority support within a couple of months, and we won our union election overwhelmingly in early 2023. During this time, I helped grow our Organizing Committee to over 200 members, 40x larger than when I started. I was subsequently elected to serve on the local’s first bargaining committee. While bargaining, I helped draft language related to teaching requirements that was the first of its kind in a grad labor contract. During this time, I also helped Research Assistants at the Law School join the local, against opposition from the local chapter of the Federalist Society. 

We organized nearly 2,000 workers to sign strike pledges in order to win a strong first contract. Relative to when we began signing union cards, we won a $12,000 raise for our lowest-paid full-time members, an average raise of roughly $9,000, and a whole host of new benefits and protections. Moreover, we finally secured the existence of our union after 17 years of opposition from our employer.

I fundamentally believe workers can build and run their own unions. I look forward to building a national organization that is financially sustainable, transparent, and that provides the tools and support necessary for workers to organize themselves and build powerful local unions.