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Members,
It has been a long haul and most all of it a pleasure. I have been honored to serve you as Chief Steward,
Executive Vice President and President of this Local for the last 20 years now. Many of you have been like family to
me. When I decided not to run for President I ran for EVP to stay on and advise Jim Kline as President as I knew he
would win with no doubt and he wanted my support as he felt he needed and wanted my experience and knowledge behind him and
that was one of the reasons he agreed to run for the office. The members decided to vote in Alice and go without the
experience and knowledge but I understand fully why. I have been in office a long time, I no longer work for the company
and am not there on a day by day basis and in many ways it makes sense. I do wish Alice congratulations and good luck. However
I will keep my word to Jim and will be there for him 24/7 as an advisor and support which means I am still there for the members
of this local in any way I can be. You are my brothers and sisters which I will miss very much, most of you anyway!!!!
You all need to fight the fight. I promise you it will get much worse. The taking over of Quest doesn't make us
better off. It means we may have some strengths through support from big locals and we may gain some strengths at the
bargaining table but we also get most of their management in the Northwest, you know, the people that ran their stock to the
point that they could be bought out by a company the fraction of their size. Those are the people you work for
now. To hell with the company, this is my farewell to the Union members. Again, it has been a great honor to serve
you. I am very proud of much of the work we have accomplished together. We even made some great gains at the last
bargaining table for severance. We all like to think it wont happen to us but Phil Phillenger had been here 38 years
and it hit him. We always need to make gains, we always need to move ahead and we always need to fight the fight.
I wish you all the best in the next year and if there is anything I can do for you or the local don't hesitate to ask.
I may not be an officer anymore after today, but I am still here for you. I am also looking at the possibility
of doing some things for the National Union or District Office.
My love to you and all of your families,
In Solidarity,
Bill Ward, President (For one more day) CWA LOCAL 7970
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