John Haer

President

John Haer worked 25 years in communications, organizing, negotiating and staff direction for a local union (SEIU) representing service and health care workers and (before retiring in 2012) 10 years as director of a local union (AFTRA) for performers and broadcasters in radio and television. Earlier job experience included welfare casework in New York City, 2 years farm labor at Woodville State Hospital as a Conscientious Objector to the American War in Vietnam and 6 years as an administrator at an alternative youth health clinic. Currently, John is the volunteer Board President of the Battle of Homestead Foundation, also a Democratic (Bernie-style) Committee Person.

Other Board Members

Pauline Greenlick

An active member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation, Pauline Greenlick has worked in education for over 30 years teaching students with special needs. She is an award-winning filmmaker and educator focusing on documentaries involving social justice issues for...

Perry Recker

Perry Recker is a retired college librarian, a long-time worldview educator with a strong interest in the environment, a lay philosopher of religion, science and ordinary experience, and an advocate for social justice and healthy local communities. Besides being a...

Rosemary Trump

A retired Vice President of SEIU and President of SEIU, Local 585, Rosemary Trump is currently a member of SEIU, USW and UMWA (retiree locals). She chairs the Labor Heritage Center Committee for the Battle of Homestead Foundation. She served as Chair of the Committee...

Maura Bainbridge

Maura Bainbridge holds a PhD in anthropology with a focus on historical archaeology. Her academic work considered the memorialization, and more often the erasure, of labor history at sites of labor conflict in the United States — Homestead, Pennsylvania; Ludlow,...

Jacqui Cavalier, EdD

Dr. Jacqui Cavalier has been a Professor of History at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) since 2000 where she teaches a variety of history courses. She serves as Allegheny Campus Vice President for American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 2067 where she...

Suzanne Donsky

Suzanne Donsky served for 31 years as an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board and came to Pittsburgh’s Region 6 Board office in 1993. She began her NLRB career in NYC, having been in the third graduating class of CUNY Law School and its uniquely public...

Mark Fallon

Mark Fallon is a life-long resident of the Steel Valley and an avid archivist of labor history. He graduated from University of Pittsburgh, is a U.S. Army veteran and worked at U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant for 14 years. He retired in 2018 from the Steel Valley School...

Al Hart

Al Hart was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, where members of his family had worked in the now-long-defunct shoe industry and in electrical manufacturing including GE and Sylvania. He grew up in Erie, PA and was politicized by the civil rights and antiwar movements of the...

Jay Hornack

Jay Hornack is in private practice as an employment law attorney and was active throughout the 1980s in the Tri-State Conference on Steel, an advocacy organization committed to stopping plant closings (such as the one that occurred in Homestead) and mass layoffs in...

Charlie McCollester

Dr. Charles McCollester is a founding member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation. He has a Doctor of Philosophy from Louvain, Belgium, and was a Steward (Local 57 Hotel Restaurant Union) and Machinist and Chief Steward (UE 610) at Union Switch & Signal. He...

Lawrence McCullough

Lawrence McCullough is the BHF Communications Committee chair and a BHF Program Committee member. An organizer of educational and non-profit community ventures since 1973, he has an extensive background in journalism, public relations, arts coordination and municipal...

Constance Portis

Constance Portis is a Homestead resident and is degreed in the field of human relations. She is a founder and former publisher of the Greater Pittsburgh Black Business Directory, Women's Yellow Pages and Renaissance News. She founded the Black Extravaganza and...

Saul Schniderman

Saul Schniderman is a founding member and current chair of the Labor Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. He is the former president of the Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME 2910 and former president of AFSCME Council 26, Federal Employees. Saul edits...

Howard Scott

Howard Scott is a longtime, proud member of the Battle of Homestead who has worked on a number of the group’s initiatives and programs through the years highlighting local history, unions and the importance of our working class legacy. Currently retired and living...

Brittany Sheets

Brittany Sheets is a multi-talented communications professional and proud Penn State University graduate. She got her start in the progressive movement through her work with The Union Edge, Labor’s Talk Radio. Raised in a labor family, she understands the struggles...

Mike Stout

Mike Stout worked at the Homestead Steel Mill from 1977-1987 and served as an Assistant Grievanceman, elected Zone Grievanceman and Grievance Chairman for USW Local 1397 from 1979 until the mill closed in 1987. He has studied and is intimately familiar with the...

Keli Vereb

Keli Vereb has since 2001 served as coordinator of USW District 10 Women of Steel and facilitates Women of Steel trainings for the district. She has been a USW member of Local 2227 since starting work at USS Irvin Plant of the Mon Valley Works in 1995, where she works...