Labor Party National Organizer: Mark Dudzic

Mark Dudzic served as President of Local 8-149 OCAW (now Local 1-149 PACE) for over 18 years. He was President of the OCAW District 8 Council—the largest District in the OCAW—throughout the 1990's until its dissolution shortly after the PACE merger in 1999. He held a number of elected and appointed positions within OCAW and PACE including District 8 representative to the OCAW Chemical Bargaining Committee and Trustee of the PACE Region 2 Council. As a labor activist in New Jersey he served the labor movement in a number of capacities. He was a Trustee of the Bergen County (New Jersey) Central Labor Council and a Vice President of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council.

Dudzic worked a number of jobs including sanitation worker outside of Buffalo, New York, cannery worker in Alaska and warehouse worker and taxi driver in New York City. He attended college sporadically for over 10 years, finally graduating from the City College of New York in 1982.

In 1979 he hired into the Handy and Harmon precious metals refinery in Northvale, New Jersey where he worked as a melter/caster and helped organize the plant into OCAW. He served as shop steward and chief steward for the unit before being elected local union president in 1984. As President of an amalgamated local representing over 25 diverse bargaining units, Dudzic dealt with the full range of issues facing working people these past 20 years. He distinguished himself in conducting creative fights against large, multi-national corporations.

Carrying on the traditions established more than 20 years earlier by Tony Mazzocchi, the Local played a leading role in the fight for occupational health and safety. Under his leadership, the Local bargained some of the first work and family contract language in the private sector and was an early leader in the anti-apartheid and international solidarity movements.

Dudzic was a founding member of Labor Party Advocates and the District 8 Council was the first labor organization to formally endorse and affiliate. He served as Rules Committee Chair at both the Founding and 1st Constitutional Conventions of the Labor Party and on a number of Labor Party commissions and committees. He was active in the formation of the New Jersey Labor Party. He helped organize and staff the 2nd Constitutional Convention in 2002. Dudzic was a long time friend, associate and ally of Labor Party Founding Brother Tony Mazzocchi.

Upon Tony's death in 2002, he was appointed Interim National Organizer.