Published: October 08, 2009 03:25 am      

Caputo makes most of his unique qualities of leadership

There were probably few outside of friends and colleagues who had heard the name Mike Caputo in 1996.

It turns out that 1996 was a significant year for Caputo — he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates to represent Marion County and he earned a full-time job with the United Mine Workers of America as a COMPAC coordinator for the state.

After only 13 years, Caputo has risen in the ranks of both the House and the UMWA. Last year, he was selected as the majority whip, the third-most-powerful position in the House of Delegates. And Wednesday, he took an oath to serve as the UMWA's District 31 international vice president, putting him in the position to lead 40 local unions and more than 16,500 members.

“I never thought in my wildest dreams that a boy from Rivesville with only a high school education would eventually serve the state of West Virginia in the House of Delegates,” Caputo told the Times West Virginian. “When I heard that first grievance (on the local union level), I didn’t have it in my mind that someday I would be part of the international union executive board.

“I love what I do, and I love serving people,” he explained. “I live it, basically. I guess when you work hard those kinds of things happen.”

It takes hard work, but it also takes a little more. It takes a hand that is always offered. It takes an ear that is not just ready to listen, but to help in any way. It takes the gumption to fight for what you believe in, even if it isn’t the popular thing to do.

“A lot of people push buttons but don’t speak,” said Carlo Tarley, the former UMWA secretary/treasurer. “You know what side Mike is on. Mike makes it really clear that he is on the side of workers.”

Those unique qualities of leadership are probably what led to his rise politically and professionally and are the reasons why UMWA President Cecil Roberts selected Caputo as part of the slate of his re-election campaign. Caputo will now be at the top of UMWA leadership as part of the international executive board, made up of six district vice presidents and three at-large members.

“I’ve known Mike for more than 20 years, and I’ve always known him to be incredibly smart and a strong supporter of working families and their communities,” Roberts told the Times West Virginian. “He cares about people, cares about their jobs, cares about what kind of lives they lead and what kind of future their children will have. Mike has always worked to do whatever he can to make their lives and their children’s future better.”

Of course no one, not even Caputo himself, knew the endless possibilities when he became a member of the UMWA on Feb. 22, 1977, as he took a job as a teenager at the Federal No. 2 mine. He was following in the footsteps of his father, Frank, and his grandfather, Joe. He was a young man trying to earn a living in the mines.

And who could have known that in 1996, when Caputo won a close race for the House of Delegates that he would make it to the top tier of leadership, returning the House back to the people of West Virginia?

What it takes is the right person in the right position at the right time. Caputo’s new appointment to the UMWA’s international executive board is yet another example.