Jerry Hodge Elected As The Sgt at Arms for UAW Region 8 Retiree Council

We want to congratulate Jerry Hodge on his elected position as the Sgt at Arms for UAW Region 8 Retiree Council.

In preparation for this article, I wanted to get Jerry's personal UAW journey in his own words. Thank you Jerry for your help and participation of bringing this article together.

I began my career March 23, 1993 with DTNA 10 years before we voted in the UAW to represent the workers at the Cleveland, NC DTNA truck manufacturing plant.

When they were organizing I was a QC team leader during our organizing drive. My manager approached me concerning a UAW T-shirt I had on and his comment was "I am not going to have my team leaders wearing those shirts." My reply was "I am not supporting the UAW because of the way I am treated - I am in support of the UAW because I want to see in the contract what I am giving the most productive years of my life for. I don't want to try and retire as an at will employee in a Right To Work state."

I thank the UAW for the contract that was in place when I retired. The Collective Bargaining Agreement provided good health care and benefits to me and my family. I always tried to stay focused on the end game retiring with the security of good benefits.

I began my service to our local serving on the election committee, 2 term bargaining committee, CAP Committee chair, 3 term NC/SC UAW President, as well as Vice President of our local.

I have enjoyed serving local 3520. I witnessed much growth and maturity over the last 22 years. I look forward to serving y'all and the UAW Retiree's in Region 8 in this next term. I encourage all that as hard as life can be sometimes, to keep your eye on the prize time goes so quickly. Don't let the small things drive you to make rash decisions to temporary problems.

Y'all have a great career in front of you with the representation of organized labor, a benefit that so few workers have. All workers benefit by the contracts signed and the legislation that organized labor and the AFL-CIO push for.

Always organize and stand in Solidarity together!