A new year is always a time for new beginnings. And that will be true for our COPE program this year, following the retirement of our longtime COPE Director Peggy Olstein-Wiedman.

Peggy guided this vital union effort for more than 20 years, in the process vastly increasing its visibility and relevance. Every dollar raised went to assure that our members’ interests were represented in the political halls of power.

Peggy will be a tough act to follow. But, that’s what I’ll be doing as interim Director while I continue my role as International Administrative Vice President. For those who don’t know me, I have most recently been Director of the Transit, Utility, Universities and Service Division, overseeing contracts at 37 properties across the nation.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, I came to TWU in 1971 as a Bus Operator with the Central Ohio Transit Authority and member of TWU Local 208. I started representing workers as a Shop Steward in 1972 and was elected to the Local union’s Executive Board in 1974. I was subsequently elected Local Recording Secretary, Transportation Vice President and finally President of Local 208 in 1988. (In that role, I always reminded members and management that “A Bus is Nothing Without US!”)

During the years at my Local I came to understand the importance of politics in the everyday lives of our members. The saying “What’s won at the bargaining table can be lost at the ballot box” has never been truer. That’s why when I joined the TWU International Staff in 1997, I began to work with Peggy to expand our COPE presence in the locals I supervised. That effort stepped up when I was named Director of the Transit Division in 2004.

As interim COPE Director, I hope to take our participation in this vital program to a new level.

Nobody is prouder than I am that Barack Obama is our first African-American President and that TWU was among the first unions to support him. I served on the Rules Committee for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and was an elected Obama delegate from Ohio.

As much faith as I have in President Obama, he can’t do it alone. From Wall Street to the streets of Main Street America, institutions were turned on their heads in 2008. At times it seemed the only thing out numbering for sale signs popping up on lawns across the United States was workers in the same communities being handed pink slips.

While we finally have a friend in the White House, the times will still be treacherous for America’s working families. This is why we can’t sit back and enjoy Obama’s victory. We have to redouble our COPE efforts to make sure workers have a say in who benefits from the economic recovery. Will it be the same corporations and wealthy individuals who got us in this mess, or will it be the decent folks who struggle every day to make a living for their families?

In the coming months we will be rolling out a new COPE club to go along with the existing ones so that we can improve on our overall COPE donations from members. Let’s give it our best in 2009 to truly make an historic turnaround in our country. Our members, their families and our communities are counting on us.