Leadership Profile: NAGE Local R4-45 President Roy Morrisette
Roy Morrisette has been cutting fresh meat for military families in the Tidewater, Virginia, area for more than 26 years. When he began working for the Defense Commissary Agency, or DeCA, he signed up for the union, worked his way to Chief Steward, and was elected president of NAGE Local R4-45 in 1994.
Local R4-45 currently represents more than 600 federal employees who work at seven stores in the Tidewater area and its mandate is to provide top-grade grocery products to military families. In its heyday, Local R4-45 represented more than 900 employees at nine stores in the greater Tidewater area, the largest military industrial complex in the world.
President Morrisette becomes thoughtful when asked about his most satisfying victory as a union president, adding that there has been so many it would take time to winnow all the victories down to one single most important case.
However, he laughs good-naturedly, when he recalls the case local members refer to as the Cookie Bandit case, an incident where the local chief steward was fired for allegedly stealing and eating cookies from a store's shelf.
"We took that case to arbitration," recalled Morrisette, "where the Union provided witnesses that the chief steward brown-bagged his lunch every day and every day that bag included cookies. He loved cookies.
"We also provided evidence that the supervisor who fired him was not tall enough to see through the window from which she claimed to have seen him grabbing cookies from the store shelf."
Taking a more serious tone, President Morrisette said, "The greatest thing about that case is that we got the man his job back, with full back pay and benefits and he made it to retirement." Laughing again, he added, "But he sure did love cookies."
President Morrisette said he gains the greatest satisfaction from being Union president because it provides him the opportunity "to help other employees, especially those who can't help themselves."
He credits the National union for teaching him to stand strong. "I went to every training seminar I could to learn the law and the rights federal employees enjoy, but it was the National leadership that taught me 'you control the meeting, don't let the meeting control you.'"
Today, the local president views the changing workforce as the greatest challenge the Union must meet. "When I started here 90 percent of the employees were Civil Service employees and working here was their career."
Now, an overwhelming majority of store employees are students just passing through. "For most of these young folks, this is their first job, their first experience working for the government, and they have no expectation of making it a career. Trying to help the student workforce and explain how the government works is challenging. Knowing you helped them and kept them on the right track is satisfying."
After 26 years, the Chesapeake, Virginia, native has no regrets about the path he has taken. "It's rewarding helping people, I have met people from so many different walks of life, and I really enjoy the job I do."