Our treasury isn’t money, it’s sacrifice. It’s built from missed birthdays, broken backs, and sleepless drives home. That’s why every dollar must go directly to supporting members, not wasted on politics or tradition. I’ll continue to treat the treasury as sacred and ensure it delivers results that matter to you and your family.

It’s time to bring our elections into the 21st century. Secure online voting will give every member a voice, no matter where they live or work. More participation means more accountability, and a union that truly reflects the will of its members.

Members don’t need promises; they need help paying the mortgage and keeping the lights on when work slows down. By building asset-backed programs and smarter financial tools, we can protect members during downturns while also growing our union’s wealth for the long haul.

When industries contract, too many unions stand by and do nothing. Not here. We need a training program that helps members use their skills in other fields, so no one is left stranded when the industry shifts. This union must be a lifeline, not just a contract enforcer.

Younger members are entering an economy stacked against them, crushing rent, no assets, and inflation that steals every dollar. They are forced to take risks older generations never had to. We must create new tools and programs to help them save, build wealth, and secure a future where retirement isn’t a luxury.

Where I come from, we don’t call retirees “old timers”, we call them elders. They built everything we have today with their labor and sacrifice. They deserve more than thanks; they deserve security, dignity, and protection. We must fight for healthcare, cost-of-living support, and real guarantees for the people who carried this union before us.

Too often we hear that older members don’t understand the younger members. The truth is, the gap is real, between mechanics and technology, between copper-and-filament and data-and-systems. But that divide doesn’t have to weaken us. Elders bring wisdom and life experience. Younger members bring technical skill and innovation. Together, they can build a stronger union. We need to stop seeing differences as threats and start using them as strengths.

If you’re a younger member in Local 728, you already know the disconnect; you live in a digital world, but your union feels like it’s stuck in the past.

You move often. You work gig to gig. You live off text threads, group chats, and apps that update in real time. But when it comes to union info? You’re still expected to check your mailbox or sit through long meetings just to find out what’s going on. That’s not how we communicate in 2025, and it’s not how a modern union should either.

We need to meet you where you are.

On your phone. On your schedule. On the platforms you already use.
That means modernizing the way we send updates, run surveys, take votes, and gather feedback. You should be able to engage with your union the same way you manage your work, money, and life, fast, clear, mobile, and accessible.

We don’t just need to “bring in” younger members, we need to build a union that actually includes you. And that starts with communication that respects your time, your reality, and your voice.

If we want 728 to be future-ready, we have to start communicating like we’re already there. Not like we’re still running things from a filing cabinet in 1954.

Tradition doesn’t protect us anymore. It gave us our foundation, but it’s not enough to carry us forward. Employers don’t respect tradition, they respect leverage. Politicians don’t recognize tradition, they respond to strategy, numbers, and power. If we keep clinging to the past like it’s a shield, we’re going to get blindsided by the future.

The truth is, the old way of doing things isn’t just outdated, it’s a liability. The world changed. The economy changed. The industry changed. We’re facing new threats: runaway production, AI, wage erosion, inflation, and automation. And we’re still holding strategy meetings like it’s 1976.

If we want to survive, and more importantly, if we want to lead, we have to evolve. That means embracing financial innovation, modern technology, new communication tools, smarter data, and proactive planning. We need to start building systems that protect our members not just from yesterday’s problems, but from tomorrow’s.

This union is full of some of the most skilled, adaptable, and brilliant workers in the industry. But we cannot keep wasting that talent by locking ourselves into outdated models. It’s time to stop protecting tradition for its own sake, and start building a union that actually protects its members, in the real world we live in now.

Every vote on the Executive Board isn’t just about numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s about people. It’s about the exhausted parent pulling 14-hour days. The ELT who hasn’t worked in weeks. The retiree hoping their 13th check comes through. Behind every dollar we approve or deny is a life that already gave everything to this union, and that’s the weight I carry into every decision.

Too often, leadership treats the treasury like a bank account to guard, or a political tool to control. I don’t see it that way. I see it as the result of thousands of sacrifices, missed birthdays, blown backs, sleepless nights, and decades of labor poured into the foundation of this union. That money isn’t just capital. It’s memory. It’s sweat. It’s trust.

So when we talk about spending, investing, or creating programs, it’s not just about math, it’s about mission. Is this vote going to make a member’s life better? Will it protect them when the calls stop coming? Will it deliver real value to the people who keep this industry moving?

If the answer is no, I don’t vote for it.
No excuses. No complacency. Just results.

Because if we forget that every financial decision touches a real life, we’ve forgotten what a union is supposed to be. And I will never let that happen on my watch.