{"id":24389,"date":"2025-11-04T15:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/24389\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:17:13","slug":"ryan-mudger-will-lead-1400-union-members-as-president-of-ue-506-at-erie-wabtec-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/24389\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Mudger will lead 1,400 union members as president of UE 506 at Erie Wabtec plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time since 2014, there’s a new president of Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America at Erie’s Wabtec<\/a> plant.<\/p>\n

Ryan Mudger, 50, of Erie, stepped into that role on Nov. 1 following a special election in October.<\/p>\n

Mudger, who joined what was previously GE Transportation in 2008, takes over for Scott Slawson, who was elected to serve as president of the national UE<\/a>, which represents about 40,000 union members nationwide.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Mudger is president of UE Local 506 at Wabtec Corp.<\/p>\n

“I’m stepping into some big shoes,” Mudger said. “He (Slawson) has done a lot for this membership. If I can do half the job we will be in good shape.”<\/p>\n

Mudger isn’t new to the union.<\/p>\n

He participated in strikes in 2019 and 2024 and has served for the last six years as chief union steward.<\/p>\n

Mudger said he’s not confrontational by nature, but is prepared to fight for the best interests of union members.<\/p>\n

“There are times you have to stand up for your membership,” he said. “Sometimes you have to help find the middle ground.”<\/p>\n

A Meadville native, who only moved to Erie about a year ago, Mudger said he worked for years in the tool and die industry. He said took the job at GE Transportation in search of better pay and benefits.<\/p>\n

More: For more than a decade, Scott Slawson led Erie’s largest industrial union. He’s moving on<\/a><\/p>\n

As president of Erie’s largest industrial union, it will be his job to preserve those wages and benefits.<\/p>\n

More: It’s 76 feet long, powered by 72 giant batteries, and it’s pink. Meet the Wabtec FLXDrive<\/a><\/p>\n

Mudger, who’s worked in a number of assembly roles at Erie’s locomotive plant, says what’s good for the membership is good for the community.<\/p>\n

“We want to see Erie prosper,” he said.<\/p>\n

Contact Jim Martin at\u00a0jmartin@timesnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Ryan Mudger has been elected new president of UE 506 at Wabtec<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time since 2014, there’s a new president of Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,16176,16179,16177,16175,16178],"class_list":["post-24389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-ge-transportation","tag-ryan-mudger","tag-scott-slawson","tag-union-steward","tag-wabtec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}