Phillips retires at Sheet Metal Workers;
Candioto appointed business manager
Len Phillips, a 40-year member of
Portland-based Sheet Metal Workers
Local 16, has retired as business man-
ager/financial secretary. The local’s Ex-
ecutive Board appointed business agent
John Candioto to complete the unex-
pired term.
The Executive Board appointed
Russ Benton to fill Candioto’s unex-
pired term as a business agent.
The transition took place Dec. 1.
Officer elections will be held in June
2012.
Phillips, 62, has held the local’s top
position since 2003. He had less than a
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grady@gradystorms.com
Enjoy a blessed Holiday Season!
one term on the Executive
year remaining on his third
Board.
term.
A native Oregonian, Can-
A graduate of the Sheet
dioto grew up in a union
Metal Workers apprenticeship
household. His late father was
and training program, Phillips
a member of International
worked as a business agent for
Longshore and Warehouse
the local from 1993 to 1995,
Union Local 8, and his grand-
servicing Southern Oregon.
J OHN
was a union boiler-
father
He returned to the tools in
C ANDIOTO
maker.
1995, taking a job as a con-
“I was a union kid,” he
struction manager for South-
said.
land Industries. That’s what
After graduating from
he was doing when he was
Portland’s Cleveland High
appointed business manager
School, Candioto moved to
in 2003, following the resig-
the Tri-Cities in Washington,
nation of Bob Ronspiess.
where he worked as a union
In addition to business
construction laborer.
manager, Phillips has served
L EN
In 1976 he entered the
as president of the local, as a
P HILLIPS
sheet metal apprenticeship
pension trustee, on the ap-
prenticeship and training committee, program in the Tri-Cities, joining Sheet
and as a trustee to the international Metal Workers Local 242 (now Local
55). He followed work to Portland in
training trust.
“The local is stable and on solid fi- 1988, where he transferred his union
nancial ground,” Phillips said. “When card to Local 16.
Candioto said work in Local 16’s ju-
I took this job, I set a goal of leaving
office with the union better off than I risdiction currently is the best it’s been
found it. I feel we’ve done that. Now, in two and a half years. “We’re not fully
I’ve challenged my successor and the recovered, but we’re starting to see the
light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
other officers to do the same.”
The union represents 2,200 Sheet
Candioto, 54, has worked full time
as an elected business agent for Local Metal Workers in both construction and
16 since 2006. Prior to that he served industrial production.
IN MEMORIAM
L EE H UNSAKER , a former
business representative and
69-year member of the Ma-
chinists Union, died Nov. 11
of age-related causes. He was
88.
L EE G. H UNSAKER was
born March 28, 1923, in Dil-
lon, Mont., to Isaac and Laura
Griffith Hunsaker. He married Mar-
garet “Mickey” Mickelson on Nov. 20,
1942, in Eugene.
Hunsaker began his career as an ap-
prentice saw-maker at Spear & Jack-
son, Inc., the charter shop of Machin-
ists Paradise Lodge No. 1311 in
Eugene. The shop made circular saws
and bandsaws for mills. After serving
in the U.S. Army during World War II,
he returned to Spear & Jackson to com-
plete his apprenticeship.
He worked as a journeyman saw-
maker until he was elected business
representative for Santiam District
Lodge 163, which was comprised of
Machinists locals in Cottage Grove,
Eugene, Corvallis, and Salem.
After District 163 was merged with
District Lodge 24, Hunsaker continued
as a business rep until his retirement in
1978.
Hunsaker held several offices in
Lodge 1311. He also held delegate po-
sitions to the Lane County Labor
Council, the Linn-Benton-Lincoln La-
bor Council, the Oregon Ma-
chinists Council, and the Ore-
gon AFL-CIO during his career.
In recent years, Lodge 1311
was merged into Lodge 1432.
Hunsaker was a member of
Lodge 1432 at the time of his
death.
Hunsaker is survived by his
wife; a son, Richard of Springfield; a
daughter, Nancy Van Buskirk of Eu-
gene; six grandchildren; and nine great-
grandchildren.
A memorial service was held Nov.
17 at Lane Memorial Gardens & Fu-
neral Home in Eugene.
The family asks that remembrances
go to the Lane County chapter of the
American Red Cross.
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