President’s Office- “Geary Wertz”

February 11, 2015

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.