MAPE is not my first union. I joined my previous union, Graduate Assistants United (GAU), in the first year of my PhD work at Florida State University. FSU-GAU is a chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, a statewide local of the Florida Education Association for college professors and graduate workers.
I volunteered first as Department Representative, a role similar to steward, for the economics department. Recruitment work I did there tripled the number of union members in the department, and encouraged me to join the bargaining committee. I then ran for the office of Treasurer, where I served for two years and began to wear many more hats for the union. At different times, I became a UFF Senator, an FEA Delegate, and an AFL-CIO Delegate for the Big Bend Central Labor Caucus. In my final years at FSU, I was elected Vice President, where I led a successful effort to streamline and democratize our bylaws, and served as chair of our political committee, leading lobbying efforts at the state legislature for student fees relief.
My experience in all aspects of union work demonstrates my ability to advance the power of all parts of our union, from membership recruitment and political action, to bargaining and contract enforcement.
In 2021, I moved to Minnesota and sought a job at the Minnesota Department of Revenue as an analyst on tax policy, where I was hired and immediately joined MAPE. Throughout my time in MAPE, I have been surrounded by amazing leaders and organizers who have challenged me to give more to my union. Every step of the way, I have said yes, taking on more responsibility, while bringing new activists into our fight alongside me.
In 2022, I was nominated by Local 401's then-President, Sally Wakefield, to run as a Delegate for our local. Despite all the challenges of running a convention on Zoom, I fell in love with MAPE after seeing the passion and commitment our members have for our union. My business agent, Nic, encouraged me to reach out to non-members in my work unit and recruit them to MAPE. I did so, signing up 3 new members. Today, I am proud to say 94% of my work unit are union members.
In 2023, I took the basic steward training at MAPE and became a steward for region 4. A vacancy in Local 401's office of Secretary soon opened up, and I volunteered to serve in an interim capacity until new elections could be held. I was nominated again, ran unopposed, and took office that fall. I soon expanded my involvement in Local 401's membership recruitment blitzes, bringing in many new members through 1-on-1 outreach and conversations.
2024 and 2025 saw my involvement expand again, as I wrote a resolution calling for MAPE to support a ceasefire in Gaza, a successful effort which birthed the Solidarity Caucus, a rank-and-file group of MAPE members dedicated to class struggle, international solidarity, and union democracy. I helped lead contract organizing efforts in region 4 as LCAT, ran (unsuccessfully) for statewide Secretary in 2024, represented MAPE at the first-ever Minnesota public worker summit, joined picket lines with Teamsters and MFE, and wrote more DA resolutions, including "In Defense of Immigrant Rights," a resolution to make MAPE a sanctuary union.
I am a socialist. That means I believe that the working class—the people in our society who have to survive from income earned from our labor—should have democratic power over our political and economic lives. Under a capitalist system, employers exercise unaccountable power over us for most hours of our waking lives. Unions are the most direct way that most workers can challenge this power, and allow us a say over what happens to us at work. This is why I have spent so much of the last decade doing everything I can to build the labor movement.
The Democratic Socialists of America serves as a vital organizing network that builds working class power both inside individual unions and across the labor movement as a whole. We stand for liberation of all workers and the dignity of every human life. I helped start the Tallahassee chapter of DSA as one of its founding members in 2017. We organized mutual aid relief efforts after Hurricane Michael in 2018, defeated a $40 million local sales tax-financed bailout of a private convention center, elected Jack Porter to Tallahassee City Commission in 2020, and organized a statewide effort among progressive to take power in the Florida Democratic Party in 2021.
When I moved to Minnesota in 2021, I joined Twin Cities DSA. Here, I have door-knocked for local progressive candidates, participated in union organizing efforts at Delta Airlines, engaged in Palestine solidarity work, and helped Labor Branch efforts to develop rank-and-file reform caucuses in unions across the state. I am proud to be a DSA member. You, too, can join by clicking through here.
In early 2024, one of my Tax Research colleagues at DOR messaged me to ask whether I was aware of any efforts to get MAPE to follow the lead of countless other unions across the country which had, by that point, already called for a ceasefire in Gaza. I was not. That would soon change, and a handful of passionate organizers would start a group called the "Ceasefire Caucus." I introduced a ceasefire resolution at the 2024 Delegate Assembly, which passed by a resounding margin thanks to months of dedicated grassroots outreach from many volunteers.
Following Trump's election, we acknowledged that the American political terrain was rapidly shifting in an ominous direction. We renamed our group the Solidarity Caucus and expanded our scope to meet the new challenges that would face us. Since then, we have maintained our steadfast commitment to justice in Palestine, while building alliances with other rank-and-file movements in MAPE and other unions. We organized the first-ever public sector worker summit, organized strike commitments through the "Vote No Initiative," and passed a Delegate Assembly resolution to make MAPE a sanctuary union for our immigrant co-workers.
Much work remains to be done. If you want to see MAPE become a more ambitious, powerful, and militant union, please join us.