Effective July 1, 2006, the international executive board appointed a former USW District 13 international representative, John M. (Mickey) Breaux to be the new District 13 director. John is originally from Local 13-423.
District 13 covers Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and there are about 50,000 members in the region. In addition to being director of this area, Breaux will chair the Boise-Cascade and Rock-Tenn councils.
Breaux is from Port Arthur, Texas, and his father, who worked at Texaco (now Shell Motiva), was a member of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 4-23 (the predecessor to USW 13-423).
Breaux joined OCAW Local 4-23 in 1969 when he went to work at Atlantic Richfield. As a rank-and-filer, he was a member of or chaired various union committees concerning subjects like negotiations, health and safety, workers’ compensation, strike strategy and the United Way.
OCAW President Bob Wages appointed him to be an international representative in 1996, and he then headed the Crown Central Petroleum lockout negotiations for four years. For the last three years he was District 13’s coordinator for Rapid Response.
Breaux was also active in the United Way, Texas AFL-CIO and the Democratic party.
DIRECTOR
