Biography: International President Ron Heintzman
Service as International Executive Vice President
International President Heintzman has served as the international executive vice president for the past year, and prior to that served as an international vice president for seven years. As executive vice president, he was responsible for directing the activities of 18 international vice presidents and four international representatives in Canada and the United States.
In addition to directing the IVPs, Heintzman was responsible for overseeing the organizing and strategic planning departments. During the past year, more than 1,000 new members were organized into the ATU.
Service as International Vice President
As an international vice president, he assisted locals in organizing and negotiating collective bargaining agreements in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. In many of these campaigns he used his unique skills to assist the locals in using innovative approaches to the marshalling of public and political support for transit workers.
Service as Local President
Prior to service with the International, Ron served as the president of Local 757-Portland, OR. First elected local president in 1988, he was elected to five consecutive terms until appointed as international vice president in 2002. Under President Heintzman's direction and tenure, Local 757 more than doubled in size, growing to over 5,000 members with 23 separate collective bargaining agreements in Oregon and southwest Washington.
In recognition of this outstanding achievement, President Heintzman and Local 757 received the AFL-CIO John Sweeney organizing award in 1997 and 1998. During his tenure, the local organized over 3,600 new members in all types of classifications.As Local 757 president, Heintzman gained statewide, regional and national recognition for his creative pursuit of economic justice. He organized a multi-union regional conference to discuss strategic approaches to dealing with the multinational Laidlaw corporation. This model was later adopted by ATU International to present a similar program at the national level.
Ron consistently bargained significant improvements in the wages, benefits and working conditions of Local 757 members. He was one of the first to develop the "me too" approach to collective bargaining whereby management's self-indulgences became both a talking point with the public and a bargaining chip at the table. Employers came to expect thorough document requests and tenacious bargaining by the local.
To garner public support for its bargaining campaigns, Local 757 also developed a Disney-like character, "Pepper the Greed Fighting Possum," who became a mainstay of union and community activities. The character is widely known and still used today for contract disputes, political events and the like.
Under Ron's leadership Local 757 became a leader in the use of state initiative law to improve worker conditions. In 2000, the voters of the City of Corvallis turned out in record numbers to approve, by a wide margin, a transit initiative that required subcontractors to pay wages and benefits equal those of all transit systems within a 100 mile radius-most all of whom were represented by Local 757.
As a result, Corvallis transit operators have seen their wages increase from $6.65 to over $19.00 per hour as well as gaining 100% employer-paid family health benefits, pensions, vacations and holiday pay. The local's rallying cry of "economic justice" changed that community and has become the rallying cry of many other unions in the state and the country.
Local, National, International Leadership
In the face of globalization, Ron led the effort to make the ATU the first US international union to forge official ties with a European labor union. He also made certain that Local 757 had a significant presence at the World Trade Organization protests that took place in Seattle, WA. As ATU executive vice president, Ron has been active on the national forefront in the fight against job-robbing trade agreements and in responding to global warming's impact on the transit industry.
Under Ron's leadership Local 757 experienced numerous legislative wins as well. These include laws making it a felony to assault bus operators and paramedics. Under his leadership, Oregon passed a law requiring the installation and use of the nation's first illuminated and flashing "yield to bus" signage on the back of buses. Local 757 also beat back several concerted efforts in the legislature to privatize transit services modeled after the Colorado public transportation contracting law.
Education and Military Service
International President Heintzman received a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington State University, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Portland. He served 15 years of active and reserve duty as a Commissioned Officer in the US Army. In addition to this higher education, President Heintzman has also completed more than 2000 hours of leadership and labor education.
Ron and his wife, Linda, have two daughters.
Biography: International Executive Vice President Randy Graham
Randy Graham's union career began in 1971, when he helped organize the drivers of a school bus company in Ottawa, ON, and was elected the local president.
He began employment at OC Transpo in 1974, where he became a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union and continued as an active trade unionist.
In 1986, he was elected local president of the 2000-member local -- a post he held for the next nine years until his election in 1995, as international vice-president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. He was re-elected to that post by every subsequent ATU Convention
His experience as a licensed auto body repairer, school bus operator, highway coach driver and city transit driver has assisted him in understanding the many facets and challenges of our industry. He has successfully lobbied municipal, provincial and federal governments on issues for our members. He has worked with the Canadian Labour Congress to make amendments to the Canada Labour Code.
He brings with him experience as a trustee of a number of multimillion-dollar pension and benefit funds.
Randy has a thorough knowledge of organizing in our industry and is proud of a solid record when assisting locals in negotiating collective agreements at worksites across Canada.
Randy and his wife, Linda, have two grown sons.
* Graham is the first Canadian to serve as an ATU international executive officer. J.C. Manuel, a native Canadian working in Detroit, was elected as the first national secretary-treasurer at the founding ATU Convention in September 1892.
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