Championing the rights of others to be treated fairly in the workplace earned me the nickname, “The Terminator.” I was working for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as the Director of Industrial Engineering. One of the company managers at a Kraft grocery warehouse refused to give me access to time study documents. I called my boss, Jack Yager, and he said, “Fly home.” The company contacted Mr. Yager and begged him to have me return. When I did, the manager had been fired. His replacement said, “You’re known as the Terminator.” The nickname stuck. I was known thereafter as the Teamster’s Terminator.

My belief is that unions are the foundation that sustains the middle class. My commitment is to show workers that through unionizing, they have a voice in their own destiny.