Letter from CWA 7076 President Michelle Lewis
June 18th, 2010
Dear Union Family--
The last two months have been a blur with all of the activity occurring both in agencies and around the state, not to mention the transition in state government. I am writing this letter to share a little about myself with you as the new president for CWA Local 7076. I have worked in state government for 9 ½ years with the Public Education Department. In my tenure with PED I have seen many transitions in state government; beginning with the Johnson administration, through the transition of the Richardson administration and now with whatever is to come in the next 5 months.
I came to Santa Fe from the southern half of the state, Las Cruces, where I lived for 16 years. While living in Las Cruces I was employed by Gadsden Independent School District as a middle school teacher (7th grade!) and Executive Vice President of Gadsden Federation of Teachers (a sector in AFT).
When CWA 7076 was organizing I helped to facilitate the process and encouraged membership within my agency. In 2005 I received Steward training and immediately began enforcing the contract. In mid 2006 I accepted the appointment of Regional Vice President for Region 3 and later that year was appointed to Agency Vice President for PED. After serving in this capacity for 2 years, Robin appointed me to the office of Executive Vice President for the Local. I am fortunate to have experienced multiple offices and levels of leadership within the union under the wonderful leadership of Robin. As many of you know Robin accepted a position with CWA full time in Denver in mid-April and I moved into the position of President of the Local, reduced my workweek for PED to half time, and have not stopped since!
Your union has a phenomenal team representing you on the Executive Board as Regional VPs, Agency VPs, Executive Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and we have been diligent to keep a pulse on political activity occurring in both interim committees and standing committees, not to mention the upcoming changes in elected officials. Needless to say, I have not stopped since late April!
I look forward to meeting many of you, working through issues and concerns and moving forward as a labor movement!
In Solidarity,
Michelle M. Lewis
