Graphic Communicator photo by Herald Grandstaff

Jeanne Warner stays busy as the secretary to four GCIU vice presidents.

In Jeanne Warner, the GCIU is fortunate to have a multi-talented, versatile employee who enjoys her work and provides a friendly, welcoming reception to visitors in the vice presidents' offices.

Warner is the secretary for four GCIU vice presidents: Leonard Adams, David Grabhorn, Larry Martinez and Edward Toff. She said she enjoys working for them and they, in turn, praise her efforts.

Adams told the Graphic Communicator: "[Jeanne] makes my job easier by handling a lot of the e-mail and label problems that I don't' have time to do. And she does it quickly and accurately."

The vice presidents are in demand for negotiations around the country and coordinating the GCIU's political, legislative, safety and health, education, GCIU label, international affairs, and coordinated bargaining programs.

Consequently, Warner stays busy tracking schedules, making travel arrangements, and assisting with meeting plans, in addition to more typical administrative duties. She provides off-site support for meetings, conventions, and training seminars, and manages locals' and members' requests and inquiries on education, safety and health, and union label issues. Another responsibility is to maintain databases on participants at meetings and GCIU programs.

"I enjoy my work with the officers and members of the GCIU," Warner said. "Right now I'm involved in helping to plan the upcoming legislative conference and expanding the officer training program. I'll continue to work on the safety and health programs as long as the grant money lasts."

Warner, 33, began working at GCIU headquarters in June 1999 as a programmer in the then Contract, Research and Education Department. She was the system operator for the GCIUnet and provided other hardware and software support.

Warner came to the GCIU as the daughter of a well-respected, long-time employee, Mary Ann Hand. Hand retired in 1998 after 28 years of administrative support for the National Health and Welfare Fund and other GCIU programs.

Warner said she was influenced by her mother while growing up. "The labor movement and the Democratic Party – my mom was always passionate about that. Union wages and benefits afforded me a good life growing up."

She gave her family and co-workers a bad scare last summer when she developed severe headaches, nausea and other symptoms that were eventually diagnosed as a brain tumor.

"I had to have a right frontal craniotomy," she explained. "It's my badge of honor – I survived brain surgery in 2001. The GCIU was very supportive during my illness, and union wages and benefits afforded me the best care as well as ample recuperation time. And I am happily back at my desk."

When she's not at work, Warner said she is a "music enthusiast. I have a vast collection of CDs and records." She and her husband, who is a musician, built a recording studio in the basement of their Arlington, Va., home.

"I'm an avid reader," Warner said. "I enjoy modernist writers and art history of all kinds." She majored in fine arts in school and continues to devote time to developing her art talents in pastels, charcoal, and paint. "I consider myself lucky to be a Washingtonian and be able to attend many wonderful exhibits at the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, and other area museums and galleries," she said.

Warner likes to spend quality time with her two American pit bull terriers, Papa Joe and Liam. "They are very obedient and very well-trained. But they are the most easily trained dogs in the universe."

She and her husband also like to travel to the beaches of Miami and elsewhere and to the hustle and bustle of New York City. "I love New York City," Warner said. "We celebrated New Year's Eve there with a concert at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem. An extraordinary ending to an extraordinary year!"