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THINK ABOUT IT
Tenth in a
series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors
CONTROL
THE VOTE
Have
you ever wondered how Local 150’s policies are formed? Well, there
are several ways but the three most common are: (1) by mandate of
Bill Dugan himself, (2) by majority agreement of the officers (under
our current administration, this amounts to the same as method
number one), and (3) by the vote of the members.
However, Dugan has
discovered that, with a little cunning, he could manage to control
the outcome of membership voting also. He learned that the way to
pass his controversial measures was to arrange to have voting done
only in Countryside.
Unfortunately, many of our
members in Dist. 1 never hear the truth about Bill Dugan. With his
40 or so hand picked agents in Dist. 1, his lies and propaganda are
spread pretty thick there. For this reason Bill Dugan considers the
members in Dist. 1 “his” and he feels that he and his agents can
control them. He’s very confident in this maneuver, and it has
worked for him.
The most recent example of
this sneaky ploy is the increased dues assessment that he force-fed
all of us in order to subsidize his new training site. When it
became apparent that the cost of the new Bill Dugan Institute of
Apprenticeship Training (or whatever the hell they are now calling
it) would exceed the funds available, he had to come up with a way
to pay for it. So he decided that the easiest way to fund this
monstrosity (the cost of which, by the way, had not been budgeted
for) was to take even more dues from every member.
The problem was how to get
the members to agree to willingly fork over millions more of their
hard earned money. His solution — put off the vote until the general
membership meeting in Countryside, where he could stack the vote
with “his” people.
Bill Dugan knew that our
members were not happy with his decision to vote at the general
membership meeting. I, as well as others on staff, told him that
many of you disagreed with his plan, and had asked us why the vote
was being done that way. But Dugan wanted your money, and he knew
that this was his best shot at getting it.
So, it was too bad for the
members who wanted to vote but worked afternoons or nights. Too bad
for those who wanted to vote, but after a day’s work, would have had
to spend hours traveling many miles, possibly not even being able to
reach Countryside in time for the meeting. Too bad, also, for those
in the other districts who wanted to vote but just weren’t able to
make it to Countryside.
Those 2,000 or so members
who, for years had been manipulated by Dugan and his personal
agents, and could get to a meeting that was basically in their home
district, were able to pass a measure that affected the other 20,000
members who were effectively excluded from the vote. And that,
members, is just the way Bill Dugan planned it.
The fact is that if this
isn’t stopped, a vast number of members will never have any say in
what happens in our local. Then it will be too bad for all of us.
Joe Ward and Team 150 will
put an end to this underhanded practice. He will have all voting on
issues that affect all of our members done either by a general
mail-out vote or by each member being able to vote in his or her own
home district. Imagine that. At last, the voices of all members will
be heard!
And
speaking about voting, let me remind you that your union dues must
be current through the 3rd quarter for you to vote
in the upcoming election. This means that you must pay for the
3rd quarter by June 30, 2007 or you will not receive a
ballot.
Your
vote in this election is one vote that Dugan can't control. So
please make sure that your dues are paid and vote. I have
always heard that if you don't vote, you don't count, and I believe
that each of you count very much.
THINK
ABOUT IT.
Think about
it #11
Think about
it #12
Think about
it #13
Think about
it #14
Think about
it #15
Think about
it #16
Think about
it #17
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