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 1960s, graduating in 1972 from University of Rochester with a BA in history and experience in the student left. He joined UE and the labor movement his first day on the job in 1973 at the Erie GE plan, where he received education in trade unionism during 13 years working at GE and serving UE Local 506 as a department steward, local executive board member and editor of the monthly UE 506 Union News. For 20 years starting in 1986, Al was a UE field organizer for the national union, working on organizing campaigns in Connecticut, West Virginia, Ohio and assisting UE locals in contract negotiations, fighting grievances and training workplace union leaders. In 2006 he became managing editor of UE’s national organ, The UE News, and relocated to Pittsburgh, where he retired in 2017.
John Haer
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...