- I just recently became involved in our local union after a discussion with my wife about the difference between an owner mentality and a renter mentality. It accurately described how I have related to my union membership. I decided to become an active participant in the organization that can improve working conditions for me and for my co-workers.

I have been employed with Embarq for a little over fifteen years. In that time I have observed the trends of this corporation and others like it. I see a great deal of emphasis on programs and projects that make it difficult for us to do our jobs efficiently. I hope to be a part of influencing positive change for us and for the company.

Jim Kline
Executive VP, Local 7970

- Almost 27 years ago I walked through United Telephone's door as an apprentice lineman. Butch Still handed me a union card and said "you should sign this now". I did and have never thought twice about my union membership. I knew that union wages and benefits were much better than non union. I was only 19 at the time, but unions were already a part of my family. My dad had been a Teamster truck driver for the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Hood River and my grandfather had belonged to the International Woodworkers of America at the Dee Hardboard Plant. A union with a strong membership will fight for worker improvements and to keep what we have won.

Jeff Miles
District VP, Yakima Valley

- I have been a union member since the day I started work out of high school.  I worked for a summer in a union sawmill, and was summer help on a P.U.D. line crew for 3 years while going to college.   After college I worked out of the union hall doing power line work and signed a union card the day I walked through the door at United Telephone.  I saw the difference in benefits and wages in every field.  The union mill paid much better than the non union ones just down the road.  The power companies all had good pay and benefits and I was able to see the value in having a voice in your workplace.  I have compared our pay and benefits to non union small phone companies as well as cable companies.  The union phone companies hands down make much higher wages and the benefits far and away are better.  I grew up with a father that managed the union sawmill and logging operation I worked at.  I saw the respect he had for the bargaining process and even though he was on the other side of it he showed me how important the relationship was to make the business and its employees all be successful.  I hear lots of reasons why people don't belong to their union, but when it gets down to it, it is our wages, benefits and working conditions and I cant understand why anyone wouldn't want to support that and have a say in it.  The union can only benefit us, and try to make life better for us. It doesn't always succeed in every effort, but who else is out there fighting for us as the corporations try to decrease benefits and take more and more out of our paycheck.  OUR UNION, couldn't imagine what it would be like without it.

Bill Ward

President,  Local 7970