February 11, 2015 - Joe Rodgers

We had a retirement at the Union Hall. Geary Wertz, Treasurer/Chief Steward retired after 36 years of dedicated service. Geary and I go way back; we worked together when we had the UMPS process. UMPS (Union Management Pairs) is the forerunner of the Dispute Resolution Process we have now. Geary was a Union Representative on the UMPS team back in the late 90's, prior to that he was a Steward and a Branch Trustee, he also worked at the Carrier Academy and trained a lot of you. He's been involved with Branch 157 for a long time. This is a bittersweet situation; it's sweet in that Geary is going to enjoy retirement. It's a little bitter for me personally. As I said, we go way back. He's been with me through thick and thin. Whenever we needed something, research for a difficult issue, someone to figure out a problem with an OWCP issue, whatever, Geary was our man. I'm going to miss him, the Branch will miss him, but congratulations Gear on a career that should not only make you proud, but makes me proud as well. I couldn't have done it without you, thanks and good luck.