About Us

The Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation is a coalition of more than 60 local unions from across Western Massachusetts dedicated to building power and a better world for all working people. We bring together workers and leaders from different unions, trades, and towns to build a stronger and more unified voice for the more than 50,000 union members and the hundreds of thousands of non-union workers across Western Massachusetts. The WMALF brings people together, turns union members out in solidarity with each other’s fights, makes political endorsements, gets out the vote, and helps coordinate multiple union campaigns. We are committed to working together to build grassroots power, coordinating work on common campaigns, and pooling our resources to maximize the Labor Movement’s effectiveness throughout Western Massachusetts. 

The WMALF is dedicated to the more effective organization of working people; to the securing to them of full recognition and enjoyment of the rights which they are justly entitled; to the achievement of ever higher standards of living and working conditions; to the attainment of  good health, quality education, and security for all people; to the enjoyment of the leisure which their skills make possible; and to the strengthening and extension of our way of life and the fundamental freedoms to which all are entitled and which are the basis of a democratic society.

WMALF Staff: 

Ian Rhodewalt, Field Organizer, organizer@wmalf.org, 413-687-9670

Carol Rickless, Administrative Assistant, admin@wmalf.org, 413-732-7970

The Western Mass Area Labor Federation’s Executive Board: 

Jeff Jones, WMALF President, UFCW 1459

Eve Weinbaum, WMALF Treasurer, Massachusetts Society of Professors – MTA

Myra Badillo, WMALF Secretary, SEIU 1199 

Fiore Grassetti, President of the Pioneer Valley Labor Assembly, Ironworkers local 7

Patrick Burke, President of the Hampshire/Franklin Labor Assembly, UAW 2322

Brian Morrison, President of the Berkshires Labor Assembly, SEIU 509

Ethel Everett, SEIU 509

Karla Mitchel, AFSCME 17

Laura Demakis, Chicopee Education Association – MTA 

Amy Calandrella, Operating Engineers Local 98

Kevin Young, Massachusetts Society of Professors – MTA 

Nicholas Chavez, AFSCME 1776

James Ryan, Springfield Education Association – MTA

Kindalay Cummings-Akers, 1199 SEIU

Matt Szuborski, UFCW 1459

Rose Bookbinder, Trustee, Massachusetts Nurses Association

Brian Stanton, Trustee, IBEW 2324