Candidate Statement: Jodi Green

Hello to all IAPE1096 members!

My name is JODI GREEN and I am running for the position of President of IAPE.  Many members in the Princeton office have seen me at our meetings and events or may recognize me from emails I’ve sent with announcements and reminders.  Our members in our other offices across the country, however, may never have heard of me.  Therefore, I want to give you all a little background as to who I am, what led me to be active in IAPE and WHY I want to run for President.

I have been an employee at Dow Jones in the Data Strategy Department for almost 4 years in the position of Content Operations Specialist, which involves working behind the scenes on Factiva content. 

I started getting involved with IAPE the way a lot of people do: I had a complaint. Mine was regarding my salary and I remembered that one of the functions of the union was to do salary comparisons.  After meeting with Tim Martell and our current President, Yogita Patel, I started to learn about all of the other ways the union works for its members behind the scenes.  I started to think about some of the things that had happened at my past companies (layoffs, lack of raises, uncontrollable healthcare costs, and no back-up at meetings with HR), where I and my fellow employees had no choice but to go along with whatever the company said.  The employees had no power. 

When I indicated that I wanted to become involved, Yogi nominated me to become a Location Director for Princeton and also asked me if I’d be interested in taking on the role of Classification Committee Chair. This involved attending the monthly Classification/Labor Management/Grievance meetings with the company attorneys and HR. 

When I got involved with IAPE, the thing that drew me in the most was that I was suddenly in a position where I could help other people in whatever ways they needed. One way was to attend disciplinary or investigatory meetings with them. I knew how nerve-wracking it was to be called into a meeting with HR and your manager. I was able to help someone by sitting there with them and be on their side, making sure that they were receiving fair treatment and that they did not feel alone.

During last year’s bargaining, I helped run the Q&A sessions and was there to motivate our members to fight for the things that they wanted. I want to be able to do more and more of that before it’s even time to start negotiating our next contract. It was great to have such that kind of excitement during contract negotiations, but typically that motivation subsides once the contract is signed. I want to raise that level of motivation to be present throughout the lifetime of the contract, so that when it times to negotiate a new one, there is no doubt to the company that the changes are ones the members truly want.

I want fairness for our members.  I want our members to get the things that they, as employees, deserve.  I want us to feel empowered. 

Part of my process in deciding to run for President was to come up with a vision for how I see IAPE under my leadership.  What do I want to accomplish in my tenure? 

Coming up with a vision was not an easy task. I did a lot of research on unions, how involved our membership was, how things could change and the work that has been done up to this point could be enhanced.  I also went back and learned how and why unions were formed in the first place. As we all know, in particular in 2020, change is inevitable.  IAPE needs to be able to adapt to the changes thrown at us by the company (and pandemics), but also to challenge the status quo to improve our position with the company.  In the end, the more powerful our union, the more changes we can effect. 

The power of a union comes from the determination and drive of our members.  The officers, directors and stewards can only do so much.  Without our members backing us up, there’s only so much we can accomplish.  We did a good job when we went through this last contract bargaining.  My vision is to empower and excite our members to fight alongside the officers and board in getting the fairness we as employees deserve.  I want IAPE to become LOUD, so that the company cannot help but to truly hear us.

Because of COVID, I obviously cannot visit the different offices, as I had originally planned. I do hope, though, to meet as many of you virtually as I can. Visit my website (VoteforJodi.com) to learn more about WHY I’m running for President, as well as the events I currently have planned and ways in which you can reach me.

Let’s get LOUD!

Jodi Green
Content Operations Specialist
IAPE1096 Mid-Atlantic Location Director
IAPE1096 Classification Committee Chair