To understand your union, you need to understand its structure. This page seeks to explicate the structure of GSEU and its local, CWA 1104.
� Divisions: There are three divisions in local 1104: Telecommunications, Operator Services, and Education (GSEU). Each division has an executive vice president, business agents, chief stewards.
� Members have the right to attend all members' meetings in their division. They have the right to run for union office, to criticize the union, its policies officers, and actions. Members have the right to sue the union without reprisal should the internal union process be unstatisfactory or go beyond four months. Members also have the right to a copy of any and all contracts the union adminsters. Members also have the right to due process should the union file charges against the member. Members nominate and elect officers and vote on ratification of contracts in their work areas. See below for comments.
� Stewards: According to the bylaws any work area or campus shall have a minimum of two stewards; areas where there are more than 50 unit members shall have three stewards, and areas with more than 126 unit members shall have four stewards. See below for comments.
� Convention Delegates are elected by the members (the members of the Executive Board are automatically delegates). Delegates represent the local at the annual CWA International convention. In other words, they represent member interests to the union.
� Business Agents are "authorized to act on behalf of the Local Union as the occasion warrants in dealing with representatives of employers in all matters of individual or group interest." The Education Division (GSEU) and telecommunications Division have five business agents each; the Operator Services Division has three business agents.
� Executive Vice Presidents assist in carrying out the will of the Executive Board. The Executive Vice President (or President in Telecommunications and Operator Services) is "Chairperson and/or representative on all negotiating committees in that Division . . . .[and] is authorized to sign the agreement when ratified" (bylaws Article 20.1). See below for comments.
� The Secretary-treasurer is responsible for maintaining minutes of the Executive Board, keeping records, answering correspondence directed to the Executive Board, and manages the financial obligations of the local.
� The President of the local carries out the mandates of the bylaws, constitution, and will of the Executive Board. The President presides over the Executive Board and convenes all Executive Board meetings. In conjunction with the Executive Vice Presidents, the President appoints stewards for the Telecommunications and Education divisions. The President is obliged to help with grievances should the need arise. The President signs (ie approves/disapproves) vouchers for reimbursement submitted by officers of the local. In conjunction with the Executive Board, the President may employ professional help for the local's needs. All members of the Executive Board are de facto convention delegates. See below for comments.
� GSEU Decision Making Body is made up of the Executive Vice Presidents, Business Agents, and Chief Stewards in the GSEU bargaining unit. According to the bylaws and in accordance with the Taylor law, the GSEU-DMB has "sole authority to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, contracts, or memoranda of understanding, and to take, or refrain from taking, such lawful job actions or contractual enforcement actions regarding its members as it chooses." See below for comments.
� Executive Board consists of the President, the Executive Vice Presidents of each division, and the Secretary-Treasurer. It decides the salaries of board members (a power that has resulted in over $400,000 paid out to board members annually). It creates local policies, claims final authority in the interpretation of the bylaws, and establishes committees (including the election committee). See below for comments.
Comments: There are some issues that need to be resolved in GSEU structure. The comments below are intended as suggestions for improvement.
� Members should also have the ability to force a referendum to recall officers, change the bylaws, and so forth. At present the bylaws do not grant these powers to rank-and-file members. One of the central problems in CWA 1104's bylaws is the absolute power of the Executive Board when weighed against the periodic and periodically weakened powers of members.
�Stewards: According to the wording of the bylaws, each university center should have four stewards, some college campuses should have three, and all college campuses should have at least two. As far as we know there are no formally appointed stewards at any of these locations. CWA 1104 is currently in violation of its own bylaws on this matter.
� GSEU-DMB: It should be noted that there is a tension between Article 20.3 of the bylaws which states that the GSEU-DMB has "sole authority to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, contracts, or memoranda of understanding, and to take, or refrain from taking, such lawful job actions or contractual enforcement actions regarding its members as it chooses" and a passage which places the Executive Vice President as "Chairperson and/or representative on all negotiating committees in that Division . . . .[and] is authorized to sign the agreement when ratified." (Article 20.1). On the one hand, the GSEU-DMB has authority over collective bargaining, and on the other the EVP has that authority as an individual. There are also tensions between the duties of the GSEU-DMB and those of the Executive Board.
� The Election Committee should not be established by the Executive Board which after all, is made up of individuals interested in getting reelected. This particular committee should be established by some other means.
� The Executive Board should not have the authority over board members' salaries. The current President pays himself over $115,000, tens of thousands of dollars more than he was paid prior to the adoption of these byalws. The bylaws should stipulate a formula for determining officer pay: the average pay in the unit, the top pay in the unit, an hourly basis--whatever. But the officers themselves should not be empowered to determine their pay. Ideally this would be an issue up for referendum.
� Elections: Another problem occurs in electing new officers to the Executive Board (ie electing a new President, Executive Vice President, and Secretary-treasurer). To run for these offices, candidates must get nominating petitions signed by substantial numbers of members in all three divisions. So, to run for Executive Vice President of the education division, one must get signatures from Operator Services and Telecommunications. It is undoubtedly easier for a member of the Executive Board to arrange access to members in other divisions than it is for a rank-and-file member to arrange the same particularly if the Executive Vice Presidents have formed an alliance in the mutual interest of preventing members from ousting incumbents. Note that 1104's nominating process is substantially different from CWA International's suggested nominating process as described in the CWA's Uniform Operating Practices Manual. That our local's bylaws deviate from CWA's standard practices suggests that securing incumbents is precisely the motive behind the current nominating procedure.
