THINK ABOUT IT 

      Sixteenth in a series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors

 ATTORNEYS, ATTORNEYS, AND MORE ATTORNEYS

     Yes, Local 150 needs attorneys. But 14 of them, full time, on staff, given Local 150 membership cards and paid full Local 150 benefits and pensions? Paid (with your money) to sit around in newly remodeled offices atop our building in Countryside and wait until they are needed to defend Bill Dugan and his administration because they have cheated, lied, and abused their power. Paid whether they are actually working or just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Paid whether they win or lose. And during the last year, paid to serve Bill Dugan’s campaign in whatever manner they see fit.

     Their main duty, as I see it, has been to file false, groundless lawsuits to smear Joe Ward, and then use their official sounding accounts of what they have done, to try to confuse the membership into thinking that these trumped up lawsuits have some kind of merit.

     I’ll have to give them credit, though. For Dugan’s campaign, they have managed to write and distribute endless amounts of unreadable, confusing, official sounding nonsense that probably makes Bill Dugan believe that he’s getting his money’s worth (although it’s not really his money, it’s your money).

     Then, of course, as they have done for years, they write Bill Dugan’s monthly article for the Local 150 paper. As of late, though, this has not really been too much of a task, as these monthly articles are pretty much just reprints of the UEP’ s campaign literature. One quick question —does anyone out there actually read any of those long, boring, mostly irrelevant articles?

     I have no doubt that these attorneys are also, while using all of the lies and nasty, sneaky “non-issues” that the UEP can concoct, pretty much running Bill Dugan’s campaign.

     We have to wonder if, maybe it’s because Dugan’s 14 attorneys have been spending so much time on his election campaign, that they weren’t able to successfully defend Local 150 against the multi-million dollar legal action brought against us as a result of the Levy fiasco.

     I would hope, though, that in their spare time away from Dugan’s campaign, they are trying to figure out how to get us out of that costly mess, since our administration doesn’t seem to have a clue as to how to fix it. Dugan’s solution so far has been to just keep on lying to our members and hope that he can appease them until after the election.

     His attorneys will also be trying to justify why so many more members are being taken off of their jobs, as Dugan and his organizers continue to strike someone new almost every day. We all know that, unfortunately, when all else fails, a strike is sometimes necessary as a last resort. These members, however, don’t even know why they are being told to strike!

     Dugan’s whole “let’s strike everyone” policy is very confusing. Our leaders are supposed to be working to provide jobs for our members, not inventing ways to take them away. I know this all makes Bill Dugan and his people feel very powerful and important, but is feeding their arrogance and egos worth even one day’s lost wages to our members, not to mention the damage it is doing to Local 150?

     I suppose Dugan’s attorneys are also playing some role in his defense in the legal action that has been brought against him for forcing all of Local 150’s staff members to pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash for years. As an agent, and later as an officer, I was required to “contribute” $100.00 a month to Dugan’s “fund”. This little scam, by the way, was also financed with your money, as Bill Dugan gave each staff member a raise to cover this “expense”.

     I just had my own personal experience with the UEP and their pack of attorneys. At the General Membership meeting, through one of Dugans “agents”, I was handed a check for $100.00 along with a request from their attorneys to come to Countryside and talk with them. What in the world makes them think I would have anything to say to them? And, wouldn’t you know, that check was drawn on Local 150 funds (your money). I won’t go into details about what they can do with that check!  Makes a person wonder, though, how many greedy self-serving people Bill Dugan and his attorneys have managed to buy with your money.

     Now, has anyone else noticed something not right in this picture? Not only is Bill Dugan using your money to pay his attorneys to run his political campaign, but it is also your money that is being used to pay Bill Dugan’s attorneys to defend him for using your money unethically! What a concept!

          THINK ABOUT IT.

Think about it #17