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THINK
ABOUT IT
Third in a
series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors
WORK PERMITS
ISSUED AND UNION CARDS SOLD
Why would
Local 150 issue work permits and sell cards to thousands of nonunion
workers while our members sit at home and wait for a call to return
to work? Just as perplexing, why would they not only hire 13 full
time attorneys, but also give them top cards and full Local 150
benefits? Do they put so little value and pride in being an
Operating Engineer that they will sell a card to anyone? You be the
judge.
According to records made
available during the first week in April 2007, thousands of work
permits were issued and 1,006 union cards were sold to nonmembers
during the six months from Aug. 2006 until Feb. 2007. Take note:
much of this time span covers the portion of the year when many
Local 150 members were laid off and on the out of work list. Bill
Dugan and the current administration put thousands of non members to
work on Local 150 jobs even though so many of our members were
unemployed.
Coincidentally, this unbelievable action coincides with the first
six months after Joe Ward announced his candidacy for
President-Business Manager. Now the UEP can act indignant, show you
some confusing charts which include information about how many
members died, retired, were expelled, or whatever, during the last 3
years, and tell you that in the last 3 years there has been
an actual decrease in the number of cards sold. Well, we’re not
talking about the last 3 years. Nor are we talking about the entire
calendar year of 2006. We’re talking about the 1,006 cards sold
during the 6-month period from August 2006 through Feb. 2007!
And if we use Jim Sweeney’s figure of 900 as the average number
of permits that have been issued during a year in the past, then the
thousands that were issued during the slowest six month
period of the year does seem to be quite excessive! The UEP,
it seems, is still having a problem with numbers!
And why,
as they point out, have the number of top cards overall decreased in
the last 3 years, while our membership has increased? Perhaps it’s
because Bill Dugan (the self-proclaimed head of organizing) has
spent millions trying to organize companies all across the country,
and is passing out membership cards to just about anyone, without
giving any thought to the eventual long-term impact it may have on
Local 150.
But wait, I do believe I
detect a sneaky little plan here – issue someone a work permit
and/or sell someone a card and he or she will be eternally grateful
to you and vote for you. So our members’ jobs and livelihoods have
been traded off for votes. The fact is that this administration
will stop at nothing to try to keep their power. Even in April,
almost 2,000 of our members were on the out of work list.
Once
again, the UEP has screwed everyone; the members who sit at home
waiting to be called to work, those to whom they indiscriminately
sold cards, about whom Dugan and his cronies really don’t give a
damn, and the rest of our members who will find our jurisdiction
increasingly saturated with more workers than available jobs.
I still
can’t figure out, though, why their attorneys need to be top card
Operating Engineers.
THINK
ABOUT IT.
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