Our History
In Brief…
– Group organized by TWU in 1995.
– Officers of Local 525 and 526 mentored Local.
– October 1, 1995 – employees became members of Local 526 at Kings Bay Submarine Base.
– April 1, 1997 – Local 527 received its charter
– William (Bill) H. Wells was the Local’s first president.
Fort Gordon, Georgia
From 1990 to 1995 several NLRB elections were conducted to organize the then Johnson Controls World Services employees at Fort Gordon GA. Those representation elections were with a number of other unions such as the Teamsters and the IBEW. With the assistance of Local 525 and 526, Mr. William H. Wells and friends successfully organized us with the Transport Workers Union by October 1, 1995.
Some key people were instrumental in organizing us and responsible for our maturation as a Local of the Transport Workers Union: Chris Hunt, former Vice President and President of Local 525; Ed Hill, former President of Local 525 and International Representative of the TWU; Don Tempest, former President of Local 526; Bobby Knight, former Vice President of Local 526; Bobby Payne, Shop Steward Local 526.
However, International Vice President, George Roberts had the biggest impact on Local 527. His accessibility and willingness to share knowledge and experience about the Labor movement, collective bargaining and the service contract act was unmeasurable. We also acknowledge the contribution to the successes of Local 527 by William (Bill) H. Wells, our founder and first president. It took a lot of courage to take on the responsibility of bringing in a union for the employees, especially since it took several years before he was successful. He took on the responsibility of being a our president with no prior experience.
Fort Lee, Virginia
In November 2002, we received word from a former member of Local 527 that the employees of Johnson Controls World Services (JCWS) working at Fort Lee wanted to be organized. We contacted George and Steve Roberts who put together a plan to organize our Fort Lee Sisters and Brothers. On April 1, 2003, the men and women ratified their first CBA and became members of Local 527.
Fort McCoy, Wisconsin
The Biomedical Technician/Instructors at Fort Gordon and Fort McCoy approached us in late spring 2009 regarding representation. Our current Executive Board member, Shop Steward, and Biomedical Technician/Instructor at Fort Gordon, Harry Merck, spearheaded that effort. The Biomedical Technician/Instructors at Fort Gordon and Fort McCoy were successfully organized into Local 527 on August 29, 2009 and ratified their first CBA in April 2010.
