January 25, 2024
Subject: UMW Newsletter
Hello United Museum Workers,
Local 9562 Meeting Recap
Our first meeting of the year was very productive! We had Randi Pearson, the director of the USW Women of Steel program, come and speak to us about setting up a Women of Steel committee within our local. We also had Patrick McGinty from APSCUF speak to us about the Pennsylvania Promise, a key piece of legislation aimed at making state college free for low income PA residents. Other key discussions: setting up childcare so that our Local meetings are more accessible, approving the rental of an office space at the Friends Meeting House so that our secretaries have a dedicated space to work, and approving the money for new-and-improved newsletter software.
We heard from our officers about the financial state of our local. You can read the statement from our treasurer here and the one from our financial secretary here. To read the full meeting minutes, click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HeUeZb-UV2zv8X3p77XRlp1ddMSktsPo/view?usp=drivesdk Keep in mind that these minutes are unapproved, but we will approve them at our next meeting in March.
We scheduled meetings for several committees, including Organizing, Human Rights, and the Women of Steel committees. If you want to get involved in any of these committees, you can join our Local 9562 Slack and express your interest.
Check out our 2023 Year-In-Review
Do you remember everything we accomplished in 2023? It was a lot! We have updated the home page of our website with a new year-in-review: https://www.umwpgh.org/ Check it out and revel in our many achievements!
If you joined UMW recently and would like to learn about what progress we made in our first two years as a union, you can read about the previous years on our accomplishments page: https://www.umwpgh.org/accomplishments.html
UMW Meeting on 2-20
Join us for our United Museum Workers Unit Meeting at 7:00pm on February 20th via Zoom! You can register for the meeting at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdOGtrjIoEtN9_I752S4KTCe_k-KSFSnI#/registration Invite your coworkers!
It’s an election year!
Prior to the many political elections happening in 2024, all USW unions will conduct leadership elections in April of this year. This means that several of our current UMW leaders will run for re-election, but you are welcome to challenge them. You can also run for a leadership position in Local 9562, such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, Financial Secretary or Recording Secretary.
Want to learn more about what being a member of leadership entails? Reach out to any of the grievance officers at your museum, as well as current leadership, on our Slack! You can join the UMW Unit Slack here.
Per USW by-laws, voting will take place in-person. This means that we need tellers to run the process! Tellers cannot be current grievance officers, stewards, or leadership; they also can’t run for office in the 2024 election. Being a teller is a great way to engage more with our union, and get to know your siblings across the Local! As a teller, you will help establish the specific dates of the election by simply sharing exactly when you would be available to staff a polling station. This means that you can set your own schedule and only agree to staff polling stations at locations that are convenient for you.
If you have time to serve as an election teller, please email us at [email protected]
Questions? Ideas? We want to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected]. Our strength as a union lies in our transparent communication and shared experience. Let’s chat!
Local 9562 Meeting Recap
Our first meeting of the year was very productive! We had Randi Pearson, the director of the USW Women of Steel program, come and speak to us about setting up a Women of Steel committee within our local. We also had Patrick McGinty from APSCUF speak to us about the Pennsylvania Promise, a key piece of legislation aimed at making state college free for low income PA residents. Other key discussions: setting up childcare so that our Local meetings are more accessible, approving the rental of an office space at the Friends Meeting House so that our secretaries have a dedicated space to work, and approving the money for new-and-improved newsletter software.
We heard from our officers about the financial state of our local. You can read the statement from our treasurer here and the one from our financial secretary here. To read the full meeting minutes, click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HeUeZb-UV2zv8X3p77XRlp1ddMSktsPo/view?usp=drivesdk Keep in mind that these minutes are unapproved, but we will approve them at our next meeting in March.
We scheduled meetings for several committees, including Organizing, Human Rights, and the Women of Steel committees. If you want to get involved in any of these committees, you can join our Local 9562 Slack and express your interest.
Check out our 2023 Year-In-Review
Do you remember everything we accomplished in 2023? It was a lot! We have updated the home page of our website with a new year-in-review: https://www.umwpgh.org/ Check it out and revel in our many achievements!
If you joined UMW recently and would like to learn about what progress we made in our first two years as a union, you can read about the previous years on our accomplishments page: https://www.umwpgh.org/accomplishments.html
UMW Meeting on 2-20
Join us for our United Museum Workers Unit Meeting at 7:00pm on February 20th via Zoom! You can register for the meeting at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdOGtrjIoEtN9_I752S4KTCe_k-KSFSnI#/registration Invite your coworkers!
It’s an election year!
Prior to the many political elections happening in 2024, all USW unions will conduct leadership elections in April of this year. This means that several of our current UMW leaders will run for re-election, but you are welcome to challenge them. You can also run for a leadership position in Local 9562, such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, Financial Secretary or Recording Secretary.
Want to learn more about what being a member of leadership entails? Reach out to any of the grievance officers at your museum, as well as current leadership, on our Slack! You can join the UMW Unit Slack here.
Per USW by-laws, voting will take place in-person. This means that we need tellers to run the process! Tellers cannot be current grievance officers, stewards, or leadership; they also can’t run for office in the 2024 election. Being a teller is a great way to engage more with our union, and get to know your siblings across the Local! As a teller, you will help establish the specific dates of the election by simply sharing exactly when you would be available to staff a polling station. This means that you can set your own schedule and only agree to staff polling stations at locations that are convenient for you.
If you have time to serve as an election teller, please email us at [email protected]
Questions? Ideas? We want to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected]. Our strength as a union lies in our transparent communication and shared experience. Let’s chat!