Metro Philadelphia Labor Power Players

Jerry T. Jordan is a lifelong Philadelphian, a graduate of Philadelphia’s public schools, and a high school Spanish and ESL teacher. Jerry is known for his steadfast leadership and unflappable commitment to public education. Jerry has led the PFT through some of the most tumultuous years of its history, including of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership, the PFT was a driving force in ensuring that schools would reopen in a safe and healthy manner.

What sector does your union service (healthcare, construction, etc.)?
Education.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
We fight for working and learning conditions that are good for students and educators.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
I recall the pre-collective bargaining, pre-civil rights era of my youth when teachers were not treated as professionals and African American teachers were barred from teaching in white schools, in high schools or becoming principals. As a result, I became active in the PFT and was elected the PFT building representative at University City High School.

Michele Kessler is UFCW Local 1776’s secretary treasurer and has organized and represented workers since 1986. A strong advocate for LGBTQ+ workers, she chairs the UFCW Constituency Group OUTreach, is a co-president of the PA AFLCIO’s Pride At Work and serves on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ+ Affairs. At UFCW, she chairs one of the Local’s health funds and a pension fund. Michele serves on the Board of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits. Michele lives in Mountain Top, PA with her wife Lisa.

What sector does your union service (healthcare, construction, etc.)?
We represent 35,000 workers in retail, food processing, public service, healthcare, gaming, manufacturing, and medical cannabis.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
The shared voice of 35,000 members for every single worker we are proud to represent. UFCW 1776 brings deep experience and expertise to the bargaining table to deliver strong healthcare and retirement benefits, as well as safe workplaces.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
From day one, fighting for fairness, equity, and justice at the workplace wakes me up and gets me ready to go everyday!

How will Pennsylvania’s labor force evolve in the next five years?
Our workforce will continue to grow more diverse, racially and ethnically. The workforce will include many more from the LGBTQ+ communities. We must ensure a welcome, inclusive, respective and supportive environment for this changing workforce.

What kind of impact does organized labor have on local communities?
Ensuring wages, healthcare and retirement benefits, and worksite conditions continue to improve helps everyone in our communities. During the pandemic, our advocacy for safe workplaces had an impact in ALL workplaces.

The founding director of the only domestic worker organizing group in Pennsylvania, Nicole Kligerman is a fifth generation Philadelphian who has organized hospitality workers, healthcare workers, and now nannies, house cleaners, and private pay caregivers. Under her leadership, the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was passed unanimously by City Council and Mayor Kenney, and is now the strongest legislation of its kind in the country. She was also a lead organizer on Philadelphia’s “Sanctuary City” campaign. Nicole is the 2019 recipient of the Philadelphia Award.

What sector does your union service (healthcare, construction, etc.)?
The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) works for the respect, recognition, and rights for the nearly 2.5 million nannies, house cleaners, and home care workers who do the essential work of caring for our loved ones and our homes.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
NDWA offers a space to share information, build skills, access benefits, get support, and organize to win rights. We won the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which provides critical labor protections for the first time in the city’s history.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
I am deeply committed to Philadelphia, where my family has lived for over 130 years. I was inspired to become an organizer by the Philadelphia public school students who organized against school closures and systemic underfunding of our school system.

How will Pennsylvania’s labor force evolve in the next five years?
The future of organized labor in Pennsylvania is facing an existential crisis. We must center the leadership of historically marginalized and forgotten workers such as domestic workers to win real democracy, worker justice, and dignity for all.

What kind of impact does organized labor have on local communities?
Dignified, family sustaining work and a unified voice on the job to combat exploitation is critical to lifting communities out of poverty. The institutions that put profit before workers are also perpetuating structural inequity in our communities.

Chuck Knisell is the International District 2 vice president of the United Mine Workers of America. District 2 in particular represents members of UMWA, including county workers, miners, manufacturing workers, and correctional officers, in the Northeastern US and Eastern Canada. It has local unions in New York, Pennsylvania, and Nova Scotia. 

William Kresz is the president of ​​IUPAT DC 21, which represents more than 4,500 members in the finishing trades in the Philadelphia region, Central and Northeast Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Southern New Jersey. The union is affiliated with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and is known to be one of the most active unions in the region, fighting for fair wages and benefits for glass workers, painters, drywall finishes, glaziers, and wall coverers. 

Rich Lazer is deputy mayor of labor for the City of Philadelphia. In this role, he is the primary point of contact for the City’s labor community and is responsible for labor policy within the Kenney Administration. Since becoming deputy mayor in January 2016, Mr. Lazer successfully completed contract negotiations with the City’s largest labor union in record time, and has helped facilitate labor harmony at the Philadelphia International Airport.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
Prior to becoming Deputy Mayor, Mr. Lazer served for ten years with then-Councilman Kenney as a Community Liaison in his Council Office. In that role, he was responsible for communication and collaboration with city departments, state, and federal agencies.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
Give workers a voice in the work place for family sustaining wages, healthcare, retirement benefits, and safe working conditions.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
Life experiences and growing up in a household where many members of my family were union members.

How will Pennsylvania’s labor force evolve in the next five years?
My hope is union membership will continue to grow within Pennsylvania.

What kind of impact does organized labor have on local communities?
It makes communities stronger because of all the benefits and protections that are provided to union members.

Patricia Lenahan is the executive director of the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Development Board, a private, non-profit corporation that serves the public workforce system in both Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. She began her workforce career as a planner in 2004 before working her way up to executive director in 2013. In her leadership role, Lenahan supports the board in its efforts to engage businesses, industry, education, economic development, and community organizations to meet their workforce needs by supporting programs aimed at career awareness and occupational training for job seekers and young adults.

Mark Lynch, Jr., is the business manager of IBEW Local 98. Previously, Mark served as 98’s safety director. It was his masterful deployment of proprietary COVID-19 safety protocols that allowed 98‘s electricians and all Philadelphia Building Trades’ members to continue working throughout the pandemic. The additional safety protocols Mark developed were so successful that they were adopted nationally and verbatim by OSHA. Mark and his wife, Ashley, have three young children.

What sector does your union service (healthcare, construction, etc.)?
Construction.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
Wage and benefits standards unmatched in the electrical industry.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
My father is a longtime Local 98 member.

How will Pennsylvania’s labor force evolve in the next five years?
Unions are making a major comeback in Pennsylvania and nationally.

What kind of impact does organized labor have on local communities?
Our union members also serve the communities in which we live, work and play. We provide gratis work opportunities to non-profits. We coach in youth sports leagues. We volunteer and contribute.

APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin is a professor in the department of criminology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Prior to teaching, she was a juvenile probation officer and directed intensive case management for a counseling center. Jamie served on IUP-APSCUF committees and executive council, and her state-level APSCUF service includes grievance committee, meet-and-discuss, officer-at-large, negotiations teams, vice president and president. A proud mother and grandmother, she shares her home with a boxer and her husband.

What sector does your union service (healthcare, construction, etc.)?
Higher education.

What are the benefits that unions (your particular union, if applicable) offer their members?
APSCUF represents the nearly 5,000 faculty members and coaches at the 14 state-owned universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. We work to ensure that our members have a voice in their contracts and governance. We advocate strongly for our students, our faculty and coaches. We are the voice for a quality, public higher education.

What brought you to organizing and/or the issue of worker advocacy?
I have been a proud member of APSCUF since my first days at IUP, and I became more actively involved after our youngest son graduated from high school in 2004. I saw firsthand the difference APSCUF made for our members and students — through our tireless negotiation for fair contracts to our advocacy for our State System’s funding — and I have been honored to be part of that work at the campus and state levels.

How will Pennsylvania’s labor force evolve in the next five years?
Perhaps due in part to the pandemic, workers in every field realized the importance of workplace safety, flexibility, and need for fair compensation and healthcare coverage. We know from history that unions have advocated for these issues and ensure them for members through the collective-bargaining process. We are seeing more workers organizing and joining existing unions. We hope that trend continues, because the more people who have a voice in their workplace, the better.

What kind of impact does organized labor have on local communities?
Our State System universities are a perfect example of the effect unions have on their communities. APSCUF’s contract helps attract quality educators to our universities. Those faculty and coaches invest in their local economies, they raise families there, and they become part of the fabric of their regions. The quality education we provide trains professionals, many of whom remain in the region after graduation and continue to enrich the community. The State System reports that “for every dollar invested by the Commonwealth to the State System, an average return of approximately $8.30 in economic impact was produced.” Whether you are looking at the dollars or the people, unions make their communities better.

Gary J. Masino represents over 4,000 sheet metal workers as the president and business manager of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 19 and serves as a general vice president of the international association of SMART, which represents over 225,000 members. Gary’s leadership and 40 years of industry experience led him to the Philadelphia Department of Licensing and Inspection. He was also appointed to the Philadelphia Zoning Board, appointed to be a commissioner on the Delaware River Port Authority Board. The Senate unanimously appointed Gary as a board member to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board and Gary was recently elected to be the assistant business manager of the Philadelphia Building Trades.