Steelworkers´ Executive VP Sellers announces retirement

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--John Sellers, executive vice president of the USW Rubber/Plastics Industry Conference has announced his retirement effective Sept. 1. The USW International Executive Board has appointed Ron Hoover as his successor.

Sellers was appointed to represent the former members of the United Rubber Workers on March 1, 1996, elected by delegates to an R/PIC conference in September 1996, and re-elected to four-year terms in September 1997 and September 2001.

Sellers joined URW Local 639 at AMF Voit in Santa Ana, California, in 1966 and was appointed to the URW staff in 1978. He joined the international staff in 1991 and served as organising director, education director and political education director, as well as participating in master contract bargaining.

With the USWA, Sellers coordinated successful strategic campaigns to reach settlements with Bridgestone/Firestone and Continental AG, and led the union's negotiations with other major tyre companies such as Goodyear and Michelin North America Inc.'s BFGoodrich tyre unit.

Hoover joined the URW in 1964 when he went to work at Goodyear's Topeka, Kansas, plant. He was a union activist at Local 307, serving as division chairman and two-term president before his appointment to the URW staff in 1989. He has served as coordinator of the Goodyear/Kelly Springfield/Dunlop bargaining committee since 1993 and has served as Sellers' assistant since 1998.

Hoover recently concluded the contract re-opener negotiations with Continental Tire North America Inc. and he oversees the USW´s Journeyman Card Program.

From Rubber & Plastics News

Press release from United Steelworkers