Jonathan Smith Elected APWU National President

Click Here to Download the National Officer Elections News Service Bulletin

Jonathan Smith (New York Metro Area Postal Union) was elected as APWU National President in the APWU Election of National Officers as votes were tallied on Oct. 7. Debby Szeredy was reelected as Executive Vice President, Tony D. McKinnon, Sr. (North Carolina State APWU) was elected Southern Region Coordinator, and Kimberly A. Maurer (Twin Cities PDC Local) was elected Support Services Division Director.

Election results are not official until verified by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Unofficial
results for all races are printed below. Winners are identified by an asterisk; incumbent officers
are denoted by “(I)” after their name. Certified results are expected in the next few days and will
be posted on apwu.org and in the next issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.

“Congratulations to Brother Smith and all those candidates who prevailed in this election,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “I would also like to salute all those candidates who stood up and offered to serve. Elections like these demonstrate the power of our union’s democracy. Our task now is to pull together in maximum unity and solidarity to defend our members, protect the public Postal Service, and continue to uplift the entire working class.”

General & Administrative Officers

President
Jonathan Smith* – 13,545
AJ Jones – 11,855

Executive Vice President
Debby Szeredy* (I) – 13,677
Vance Zimmerman – 11,427

October 8, 2025

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Private Sector Presentation Met with Warm Welcome, Overwhelming Solidarity

All-Craft Conference, Private-Sector Workers

On Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., the Private Sector Organizing team hosted a presentation to highlight the importance of organizing efforts for postal workers and Amazon workers fighting to form a union. The panel featured Amazon worker Laurie Masterson, sharing her own experiences fighting the trillion-dollar corporation’s aggressive anti-union campaign.

APWU lead field organizer Rich Shelley introduced the presentation with a brief history of private sector organizing in APWU. Shelley, who has firsthand experience with dirty corporate bosses fighting unionization, shared a story about President Dimondstein organizing in the early 1990s in Greensboro, NC, for a union for workers at New Breed Logistics – owned by none other than the future (now former) Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy himself. That campaign was lost due to vicious union-busting. Shortly after the New Breed campaign, workers at a Greensboro, NC, USPS mail contractor trucking company, East Coast Leasing, successfully organized. The East Coast victory led to widespread interest amongst mail haul truck drivers, and the APWU went on to win the next 26 out of 27 union votes for private sector workers!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Next, Organization Director Anna Smith went over the constitutional mandates to organize the private sector in the APWU Constitution and Bylaws, including Articles 2, 4, 9, and 16. Smith emphasized how organizing the private sector is not optional—it is our union’s obligation and central to our mission.  Moreover, she reinforced the fact that it is good for postal workers if we organize in the private sector. Strong wages and conditions in the private sector directly benefit postal workers in our negotiations, stopping the “race to the bottom” that management might like to see.

Lori Cash, an organizer working directly with Amazon workers, then gave a moving update about the current fights in Amazon. Right now, there are two open organizing campaigns, one at at a large facility in Romulus, MI, and at a smaller station in Bellingham, MA. In Michigan, there are 4,000 workers on the floor, and in Massachusetts, there is broad support for the Union amongst the 300 workers at the DCB8 delivery station.

Masterson then spoke about her fight in Bellingham, where management has blanketed the facility in anti-union messages. They are directly attacking the APWU, saying we are a “government” union and don’t care about making lives better for Amazon workers, which, she countered, couldn’t be further from the truth. Laurie’s conclusion brought the room to a standing ovation:  the strength and solidarity that APWU is building to help organize Amazon workers makes winning a union there “inevitable.”

The support for private sector organizing was strong in the early hours of Day 2 of All Craft. Laurie Masterson was warmly welcomed in a room packed with attendees standing up to say they have her back and are ready to fight with her. Several members had asked to see how they could support her work or get started organizing Amazon workers in their local areas. Several members even took the microphone in the room just to say that they were ready to stand with her, because no matter who you work for, all workers are in a fight together against bad bosses and billionaires who want to exploit our work and profit off our labor.