ATU757 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS ARE SLOPPY

You have to be organized to run a union

One of the most important roles of our top 3 officers (President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer) is to pay attention to details. This is true for investigating and working with contracts. Along with paying attention to details it is just as important to convey accurate information to our members, International, community, public, media, government, employers and Department of Labor. If you are not able to do this as one of the top 3 officers in our local union then you should not be in that position.

Today I received our union newspaper and the entire front page talks about ATU757 Official Notice of Nominations and Election (so the notice in February and March were not official?). The first thing that caught my attention is this statement “Nominations for all elected Union positions will be held at the Regular Charter meeting, Monday, May 11, 2015.  Please note: In accordance with Section 13 of the bylaws the meeting will begin at 3pm.” So I want to point out the detail here. It is stated that nominations will take place at the Regular Charter meeting. When is our “Regular” Charter meeting? The answer is the second Monday of the month at 6:30pm. That is the “Regular” Charter meeting.

 The article continues to state that “In accordance with Section 13 of the bylaws the meeting will begin at 3pm”. Here is the actual wording: “Nominations shall be held at the first regular Union meeting in May every three (3) years. They shall be held at the 3:00pm Charter meeting as set forth by the Financial Secretary-Treasurer.” 

To be in accordance with Section 13 there must be a Regular Charter meeting at 3pm and there is not anymore because our Charter meeting day and time had been changed !

The top 3 Officers failed or didn’t care to correct the bylaw to reflect that. Now that election time is here they are having to violate the bylaw because of their own actions. Our bylaw is very clear by saying “They shall be held at THE 3:00pm CHARTER MEETING”.

This is just an example of how important it is to have Officers that can pay attention to detail and be able to act correctly with the right information rather than producing whatever comes up in their mind. To continue to perform in such a manner will continue to harm our membership and our union.

Chris Day