Many thanks to President Les Dillman. He is the first to never want the attention placed on him for doing the job that he was elected to do. But I feel that life must be put in perspective. This unprecedented time has caused all of us union leaders to become “jugglers.”
We all have strengths and weaknesses. But one of Les’s strengths is his ability to handle many problems concurrently. First, we had/ have the pandemic. Les had to ingest all the daily memorandums and rules pertaining to COVID-19. Then, there were daily teleconferences at night to get everyone on the same page (both union telecons and management telecons separately). On top of that, there were daily calls from human resources to notify us of which offices had positive tests and the protocols that would follow (cleaning of the office, next-day office stand-up talks).
Another strength of Les is his patience when taking calls from the membership. He has a keen ability to reassure the members while being straightforward with them.
Fast-forward and our building encounters problems. The hot water heater goes, and water is “everywhere.” We suffer damage. Next, our roof goes. This results in damage to the extent of almost $40,000. But thank God that our branch has insurance. The next picture is Les calling us and doing business from his truck as the building is gutted for rehabilitation. But his “juggling” skills had already been strengthened. Thank you, Les. We are lucky to have you.
Now take that same premise and thank every shop steward and executive board member who sees the big picture. We came into this job with great union leadership. And now we moved for ward stronger and more prepared only because of this great union.
#BeCarefulWhatYouTakeForGranted
