By Seth Bramble, California Staff Organization
The National Staff Organization awarded Mike Boyer with the 2024 Emil Oxfeld Advocacy Award to highlight the importance of his advocacy within our NSO community. Boyer’s work as NSO’s vice president of defense for the past decade will continue to inspire and guide future generations.
“He is a fierce advocate dedicated to the union cause and quick to identify and expose hypocrisy without regard to the position or standing of the person he means to expose,” said Mike McNett, the past president of the Washington Education Association Staff Organization (WEASO). “Boyer exemplifies a lot of the (activist Saul) Alinsky rules, one of which is to make the enemy live up to his own book of rules.”
Another Alinsky quote is “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
Take a look at Boyer’s Facebook page, and you’ll see ridicule on full display.
Boyer, a former criminal defense attorney, mixed it up with management attorneys who hid behind assertions that arbitration concerns he raised were overly complex. Boyer, who recognized arbitrations are supposed to be straightforward, gleefully shot holes in management takes, repeatedly and publicly.
Sure, poking fun can create animosity, but Boyer’s father told him, “Always make the right enemies.” He didn’t mean you should go out looking for enemies, Boyer said; his dad meant when you consistently do the right thing, certain people will always oppose you. These are people by whom you should be hated.
Boyer had a knack for putting members he represented at ease with good humor. Take Al the Dog.
Al the Dog appeared in many Boyer PowerPoints and presentations, sharing legal wisdom, guidance, and jokes from behind a bow tie or other clip art. Al was Boyer’s Boston terrier.
“He is a passionate storyteller in his approach,” McNett said of his experience with Boyer in arbitrations. “He has the technical background, but instead of writing a structured brief, he tells a story that focuses on the morality of the situation, making it accessible to the arbitrator.”
Boyer left the courtroom to become a UniServ Director for the Utah Education Association in the 1990s and later with the Washington Education Association, where he became an advocacy specialist, helping WEA members in arbitration cases as well. Boyer would eventually serve as WEASO president before running for vice president of defense with NSO.
Perhaps Boyer’s knack for justice runs in his blood. In addition to the inspiration he received from his father, Boyer recounted his mother’s role leading a strike as president of a Teamster’s local at the Ben Lomond Hotel.
Justin Zartman, of Connecticut, who was elected to succeed Boyer at the 2024 NSO RA, called Boyer a natural.
“I would count Mike as a mentor and friend,” Zartman said. “Although we agree on most things, there are a couple of areas where we differ. For example, I disagree with his choice of music. He despises Neil Diamond. As a Red Sox fan, I am in a place of dissent.”
The Emil Oxfeld Advocacy Award recognizes an NSO member who embodies strong advocacy skills, knowledge, and tenacity and serves as a mentor to add significant organizational value. Zartman explained that because Boyer has so much arbitration and employee advocacy experience, he has a story of management misbehavior to illustrate an example for any question that gets asked.
This man’s contributions to the United States labor movement cannot be overstated, and workers from the Atlantic to the Pacific have more secure rights as a result.
“Mike Boyer is a force to be reckoned with in an arbitration case. Mike fearlessly stepped up to the plate for wronged members and hit countless homeruns against management attorneys,” said NSO president Brad Darjean. “His unwavering commitment and relentless drive inspire us all to fight for justice and uphold the values we cherish, lest we be shamed on Facebook. One of the things I’m most grateful for is that Mike chose the union’s team.”
Asked to give advice to NSO members across the country, Boyer proffered, “It’s important to build relationships with management, however there’s also something called ‘trust, but verify.'”