 Re-elected by the Region 11 membership in 2006 to a fourth four-year term as National Business Agent, Bill Cooke has a lifetime of trade unionism to lean on as he helps letter carriers face the challenging times ahead.
Following a stint in the Air Force, Cooke, the son of an NALC member, says it was “natural” for him to become active in Schenectady, New York Branch 358 in 1969 when he joined what was then the Post Office Department— especially when he saw “the appalling treatment that letter carriers received.”
Decades of service to his union brothers and sisters followed, along with a succession of union offices, both in the NALC and the regional AFL-CIO, culminating with his initial election in 1994 as National Business Agent. He was re-elected by acclamation in 1998 and by a regional vote in 2002.
Cooke was a Branch 358 steward from 1971-1976, branch vice president 1976-1979, and president 1979-1994. Concurrently, he was district president of the New York State Association from 1981 to 1994, a local business agent from 1976 to 1983, and Regional Administrative Assistant from 1983 until his 1994 election as NBA.
His strong union convictions also led him to the presidency of the Schenectady area AFL-CIO from 1986 to 1994; he had been its secretary-treasurer for six years before that.
"I want to continue to provide representation and technical support to NALC members in Region 11," Cooke said at the start of his fourth term as NBA. "And I want to help shepherd the NALC well into the 21st century."
Cooke and his wife, Christine, have three adult daughters—Karen, Eileen and Jeanine—and a teenage son, Brian.
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