The Union Meeting started out on a BAD NOTE and ended on a VERY DISSAPPIONTING NOTE.  The first thing out of our Present Executive Boards mouths was that they had some Lawyers there for the membership to meet.   If the membership wanted to meet Lawyers they would go to their offices.  This is a Union Meeting not a place to plug Lawyers.  Could it be that maybe they are getting kick backs or something?  Makes you wonder huh?  They bored us with how they are doing such a great job, but they ran through the money that was spent this month like they were in a marathon.  We applaud all the members who came out for the By-Law changes.  I have never seen that many of our members in one room at one time before.  We also noticed a lot of people that we do not believe were members at this meeting.  Maybe someone thought that they needed to cheat?  But anyway, the By-Laws we were told are to be read one at a time and we would vote on them.  Vote Yay for the I’s and Nay for the no’s.  Sounds simple enough huh?  The first By-Law was read and people were yelling that they could not hear them.  But that did not matter because they still went on with the Vote.  The Yay clearly won the Vote.  To our surprise one Present Executive Board member said the Nay’s won and started laughing.  This brought the room to their feet.  Members were all yelling at the Present Executive Board.  Brother Tenuto called to be recognized and one member of the Board asked him what he wanted.  He stated that the Roberts Rules of Order give the membership the right to either split the room with the Yays on one side and the Nay’s on the other, or that we have the members do a raise of hands. He was told he was out of order, but he was not.  If you are on the topic at hand you are not out of order.  He then asked the Present Executive Board to over ride the chair.  Brother Tenuto was told No!  He then asked to make a motion.  Brother Tenuto motioned for the division of the room.  Brother Joe Vercillo seconded the motion and the chair said NO!  Brother Harry Wambaja jumped to his feet and told the Board Members that Brother Tenuto was 100% right on the request.  Brother Wambaja stated check the By-Law Section 28.  He was told he was out of order and to leave.  At this point one of the Sergeant of Arms grabbed Brother Harry Wambaja this scared him.  First of all these want to be gangster acting Sergeant of Arms do not have the right to lay a hand on any member inside or outside of the hall.  The Present Executive Board Member read the second By-Law change.  Once again the Yay’s clearly won and again the other board member said the Nay’s have it and once again started to laugh.  The membership went wild.  Members were screaming and swearing at the Present Executive Board.  A few members were asked to leave and they walked out saying that the way this Union is being run is a big disgrace.   By the time the third By-Law was read a quarter of the room had already left.  They knew the outcome of the next vote.  Of course the nay’s won.  Immediately after one Present Executive Board member told the membership that the nays won, one of their followers jumped up and motioned that the meeting be adjourned. The Brother next to him seconded it and the board members slammed the gavel down, calling the meeting over which left everyone with their mouths left wide open from shock.  A lot of members came out to discuss other issues and concerns they had but were not able to because the meeting was adjourned so fast.  This infuriated many of these members. You cannot close a meeting without bringing the motion to the membership to vote on.  Once again we’ve seen how this dictatorship works.  We have one question for the members who voted against the By-Law changes –

 

Number 1, why would you not want to know if you are a member in good standings and if your cote really counts? 

 

Number 2, why wouldn’t you want to be involved in your contract negotiations and be there so you know what is really being said? 

The third, changing the meetings to Friday night, that’s a personal opinion, whatever works for you works for you. 

 

There is no intelligent reason to vote against the other two By-Law changes.  We know why our Present Executive Board did not want these By-Law changes to pass. We will leave this reason to your imagination.  When the Fighting for the Future Slate gets elected in November, you will never have to worry about a fixed election or a fixed vote because we are going to do what the membership wants.  We are not afraid of having the membership involved in every part of our local.  Some people have said that this was a loss for our slate.  Our reply is, this is a loss for our membership.  These issues had zero to do with our slate.  It was what was best for the membership.  From what we’ve heard over the past few days from our membership we could not imagine happening even if we planned it.  The members got to see the way this Local is really run by dictators.  They got to see first hand that what they want does not matter to this Present Executive Board.  They have expressed how disappointing this meeting was and they will not come back to waste their time because this past meeting left a bad taste in their mouth.  This is exactly what our Present Executive Board wants.  They want you discouraged and they do not want you involved because then they can control the outcome anyway they want.  To the disappointed members, Please remember November is only 8 more months away and with your help we will elect a New Executive Board that puts its members first.

 

Hopefully w­e will see you at the next meeting and Thank you for visiting our website and reading this update.

 

So until the next Union Meeting, have a great month, stay safe and remember that this has been the views and opinions of some of the members that were at the last Union Meeting.

     

Thank you for your time-

Fighting For The Future Slate