Ian Niderost
Ian has worked as an employee of AT&T since he was 19 years old when he was hired as a Maintenance Splicing Technician in 1997. Following an emotional discussion with former chief steward Randy Riffe surrounding workplace issues & corporate greed, he was asked if he had ever given thought to being a union steward. Ian applied for stewardship at Randy's behest & was sworn in as a steward August 21st, 2012 after being trained by current National Secretary-Treasurer Ameenah Salaam & has served Local 9412 in this capacity since, advocating for members while learning workplace law & contractual agreements. He has been able to resolve many issues diplomatically in meetings with management & has filed and settled many grievances on members' behalf whenever it has become necessary.
Ian was appointed to Local 9412's safety team in 2014 & worked teaching safety as a peer trainer during safety rodeos under the leadership of Chief Steward Fred Kaho & Safety Team Lead Jay Ingraca in this capacity for 2 years before being appointed lead of the Local's Safety Team by President Keith Gibbs in 2016, a position he has held since, working as an advocate for members' safety tirelessly. He has attended the United Steelworkers Safety Conference numerous times and has a well rounded training background in safety. He was appointed co-chair of the Member's Assistance Program for the local in 2017 at the recommendation of his predecessor Steve Levine, who was a long-time respected figure within the Labor Assistance Professionals organization as the West Coast Chapter President. Ian apprenticed under Steve & Art Behnam in this capacity & has a wide-ranging understanding of mental health and substance abuse issues following years of attending the annual LAP convention. Ian has a deep understanding & passion for helping members enduring these struggles, having walked that path himself after entering recovery November 11th, 2011 & continuing to be active in Alcoholics Anonymous, whom he credits with saving his life & giving him a design for living he never knew existed.
Ian was appointed to the executive board in 2015 and served the local in that capacity until his appointment to the Secretary-Treasurer position in April 2022, taking over for the second half of predecessor Jay Ingraca's final term following his resignation to move closer to home. Since then, Ian has had a hand in renovating the union hall, reviewing the local's expenditures to find more cost effective means to save members' dues for ways they can better be used, worked ceaselessly to ensure that all members are signed at the highest percentage in the local's history while orienting new members & welcoming them to the local. When the local's website ceased to be supported on our previous server, Ian took it upon himself to redesign the local's website from the ground up to a more modern format, and while maintaining that moving forward, also recovered all of the local's social media outlets for current use & utilizes them to disseminate information to the membership. He has also twice served as the local's Mobilization Committee Chair during contract negotiations in charge of organizing & mobilizing members.
Ian is deeply committed to members & the labor movement & takes very seriously the position of trust that he occupies as an elected delegate of the membership, recognizing that our membership's wages, hours & working conditions are our raison d'être. It is a core belief of his is that our single greatest strength is in our numbers & when we stand in solidarity, corporations fear us. It is his mission to educate, engage & inspire members to be active & return unions' to their heyday of the 1960's when organized labor was at its strongest point. His goal is to go as far in the labor movement as he can to help as many people as possible realize this.
In his spare time, Ian enjoys spending time with his wife & family, the outdoors, reading, cinema, photography, continuing to be active in recovery to maintain his sobriety & helping others do so. He also enjoys cooking, especially grilling & BBQ'ing & enjoys competition, from playing softball, darts, bowling, pool, casino games & video games when he finds time in his busy schedule. He is also a huge music-head that enjoys a wide variety of music & counts learning Spanish as one of his current goals. Ian's inspiration is gathered from such historical greats he admires ranging from Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez & Wild Bill Hickock to ancient philosophers such as Confucius, Aristotle, Plato & Sun Tzu.