Chris Day frustrated with lack of union accountability |
Dear
ATU757 Brothers and Sisters,
During this months (March) Charter and Continuation meetings our members
are being advised by our union officers that during this election cycle our
local will be violating our own bylaw. The bylaw that will be violated is in
section 14 and it states “Election ballots
are to be counted no sooner than 20 days nor later than 30 days from the meeting
at which nominations were made.” Our union officers presented a memo from Lane
Toensmeier addressing why our local will be violating our bylaws. It is being
explained to the members that both International and Department of Labor has
been contacted about this. According to our officers both Department of Labor
and International has stated that they would not require the local to redo the
election. Upon receiving this information our officers have decided that they
will continue to go as planned even though it is in violation of our
bylaws.
The reason our local is
in this situation is because our officers were not performing their duties.
We
count on our officers to assure that not only do they protect us but that they
preserve order and enforce our Constitution and local bylaws. When officers are
able to violate Constitution and bylaws without any reprimand it creates a tear
in our solidarity. Our Constitution and bylaws are there for a reason and no
member should allow them to be violated without
reprimand.
Here is what happened
that created this mess. Some time in December of 2014 or January of 2015 someone
called “TrueBallot”. This is the company that our local uses to conduct our
ballot count during election. “TrueBallot” was scheduled for June
23rd, 2015. Then in January the notice of election committee was
submitted to our local union newspaper “The Bulletin”. The dates submitted where
not checked correctly and from the date of Nomination (May 11th,
2015) to the ballot count date (June 23rd, 2015) exceeds the maximum
time permitted by 13 days. The responsibility to preserve order and enforce our
Constitution and local bylaws falls upon our President Bruce Hansen as stated in
International Constitution and General Laws 13.9.
ATU757’s President Bruce
Hansen has demonstrated that
(1) he will not enforce our Constitution and local
bylaws.
(2) He will make deals with our employers committing us to such things
as “Block Sign Up” that is for the benefit of the employer and takes away more
of our abilities to use seniority.
(3) He will commit mechanics to 7 year
programs limiting them the ability to advance in different areas.
(4) He will
assess extra funds from the members to compensate for poor management of funds.
(5) He will allow retiree benefits to be reduced putting members that are in a
fixed income in a tighter income restriction.
(6) He will allow contracts to
take effect without assuring that members have access to a full
copy.
Bruce Hansen has been
able to do all of this without any accountability or fear of
reprimand.
(this is just a partial list of Bruce's failure to perform his duties to protect union members)
Our officers need to start to understand that we will not allow this to
continue. Whether through our election process or preferring of charges our
membership needs to step up and send a clear message to our Officers that
“ATU757 MEMBERS WILL NOT TOLERATE ANYONE THAT WILL NOT PROTECT OUR MEMBERS,
PRESERVE ORDER AND ENFORCE OUR CONSTITUTION AND LOCAL BYLAWS.”
I
also put the comment up as well:
Because of current events I have been thinking about the
preferring of charges. The issue with preferring of charges is that it cost the
membership so it doesn’t happen. I am thinking with some research this can be
fixed. My idea is making it so if a preferring of charges is put against a
member and that member is found guilty then the cost of the preferring of
charges will be place upon that members as a fine. If that member is found not
guilty then the members that signed the preferring of charges will then be
liable to pay the cost. This way it will assure that if members want to file
charges against a member then the members signing it feel very strong that the
member is in violation. That is just a rough draft idea but it is a start at
least…..
1 comment:
how can DAN BE A Powell representative If he is never at the garage.. Dan martin you suck
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