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Hi, Friends,
This is issue #41 of The Barking Dog, an independent newsletter put out by Caroline Lund, a Trustee and member of UAW Local 2244 at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA. It is dated October 29, 2001. I'm a bit late in sending in out email. Please note my new email address: lundshep@attbi.com
If you've tried to send me email during the past month, please re-send it, because we've had no email since Excite @ Home went bankrupt and dumped all us email subscribers. Happy holidays!Caroline
I recently ran for Commiteeperson and then Alternate in my district. I lost, but had a good experience talking with coworkers in Paint and Plastics, and hearing people's views about our union.
Running for union office is definitely difficult if you're not part of the ruling faction. When a position opens up, the Administration Caucus appoints someone to fill it until the election, so that person immediately has an advantage.
Also, if you support the ruling faction, they send you to Black Lake for some classes, so you can put that on your election leaflet.
The Election Committee (which runs the election and counts the votes) is totally dominated by the Administration Caucus.
I know of at least one maintenance coworker in the district who was unjustly denied a ballot. And a witness (an Alternate Committeeperson) told me he saw an Administration Caucus supporter not from the District get a ballot.
Election Committee Chair Paulette Rothschild, told me I couldn't have an observer at the vote count because I hadn't submitted his name in time to the Election Committee. (I had submitted Tom Burton's name as my observer 8 days in advance!)
When Tom and I asked to see some written rule that said it had to be submitted sooner, Paulette couldn't produce any such rule. So Tom insisted on observing!
According to Tom, there was no comparison of the vote totals to the number of signatures of people on the vote rosters. That simple count would show if there was ballot stuffing, but they won't do it.
Tom also told me that the ballot boxes for the Committeeperson election were kept in the cars of Election Committee members over night until the vote count in the morning.
If the A.C. really fears they might lose an election, they just schedule it to take place at a union meeting on a Sunday, as they did for the Executive Board vacancy election a year ago (which is still under appeal to the UAW's Public Review Board). That way all the members who get sent on trips and get time off for union business will come and dominate the meeting and vote for the clique-approved candidate.
And then there are the unsigned, cowardly,smearing leaflets, accusing you of whatever. They accused me of being "an FMLA abuser." It's true I have a 90-year-old father who has many health problems. I have had to take him to Emergency eleven times in the past 6 months.
You can get fired for fraudulent claims of FMLA leave. My opponents stooped so low as to threaten my job. I have also had two threatening letters against The Barking Dog to my home address, one including polaride photos of the front of my house, which I reported to the police.
It's enough to make you want to give up, right? No, don't give up! All it would take is a couple hundred fed-up union members to come to union meetings and we could turn this union around. Our union members are a sleeping giant, which will rise up sooner or later and set things right. It's just a matter of time. * Caroline Lund
On December 12 at 3 p.m., the Executive Board will be having a Christmas Luncheon during the scheduled Executive Board Meeting, at the union hall across the street. Additionally, two members will be paid lost time wages to prep for the luncheon. That's $400 spent before any food is purchased.
According to Article 8 of our Bylaws, "All members may sit in on Executive Board meetings." If you have a little extra time after work, or before for second shift, please take this opportunity to see the many other ways your Union leadership squanders our Union does. And be sure to bring a plate.If someone tells you no, be sure to remind them that it was your dues that paid for the food!
* Tom Burton, Coordinator PAT 25C
Last week we got a flyer from Art and Tito and the A.C. denouncing "absenteeism, low quality, and low productivity." It said we need to put down our political differences just as the Democrats did when they supported Bush's "war against terrorism." And it said the union needs to help NUMMI become "Number One in the Toyota Family." Here is one member's take on this leaflet:
I picked up the latest leaflet put out by the Adm. Caucus. If I were ever disgusted before, what am I now? Is this a direct threat to the hard-working, sometimes slaving people we have here, putting in all of these long hours under pressure here and at home just to be threatened by some B.S. artists (and not very good ones at that)?
This Union does nothing for us and now they are making noises like they are going to double down and pull out the whip and beat us while the Company already has us tied down. These people (union leaders) must have some fear that their joy ride is over, so now they are going to have to crack the whip.
"We must band together" . . . The Union and Company have banded so tight already that you can't tell one from the other.
* Zigzag
This is from an article by David Perlman in the Oct. 28, 2001, San Francisco Chronicle:
Management wants team work, but they won't work to help us. Parts tags wrong, location wrong, dolly assignment wrong! I tried to say there was a problem, but got written up for my trouble. The union says nothing! It's getting bad, there's no mutual trust and respect anywhere.
* Darrell
Past issues of The Barking Dog reported on the story of Ray Quan, a maintenance worker at BART, who was suspended from his job because his newsletter, Odds & Ends, reported on management's illegal personal use of company vehicles.
Ray writes:
"I just received word from the union attorney that I have won my job back with full back pay + interest + attorneys fees. While I have not yet read the arbitration award, it sounds like a slam dunk. The forces of evil do not always triumph.
In Solidarity,
Ray Quan"
A worker from the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY wrote me after seeing The Barking Dog web site. He says the UAW organizing drive there is in its second year. So far they have 1,500 signatures for the union out of a work force of 6,500. He writes,
"Any help or ideas you could send my way would be greatly appreciated. I have read all of your past issues and I fully understand that a union is not all peaches and cream, but it's 1000% better than not having one at all
"I wonder if all of your union brothers and sisters realize how lucky they are even if they don't agree with everything or everyone in your union. Your workers are worrying about downsizing, temporary workers and outsourcing of jobs. We live that also but we don't get a say or a choice in the matter. Every time we lose a reugular full-time employee they get replaced with a temp and there is nothing we can do about it.
'Tell them for us we would trade places with them in a heart beat." Thanks, Steve
Let me know if you have any ideas to pass on to Steve and the Kentucky Toyota workers.
At the Ford plant in St. Paul, MN, workers are being threatened with plant closure if they don't "shape up." They are being told by the company and union leaders that they need to compete with other Ford plants to get a new product.
Committeeperson Ton Laney writes a newsletter called Nuts & Bolts. He writes,
"At the Union Hall, a Solidarity Committee of workers continues to meet and discuss how we can unite with -- rather than compete against -- workers from other plants and keep all the plants open.
"Some people feel this work should be dedicated to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11. It would be a great way to remember those who died and all the rescuers, a great way to show that we stand for a local and world where solidarity makes everything better for everyone. A world where terrorism would be impossible, unthinkable, because every kid everywhere would look forward to a happy life."
Another article in Nuts & Bolts tells how the Company tried to make production workers do janitorial work, to get rid of janitor jobs (which are still bargaining unit work at Ford). Night shift people in Chassis resisted, led by a Committeeman, Jim Blackbird. Management tried to come down on him, but workers backed him up.
Tom writes:
"Support the people who are standing up for the Union. Don't let good Union people be bullied and lied about. . . We can get there by recognizing that we are not alone. All over our plant there are workers like the Chassis Gang fighting in smaller ways for better jobs and better treatment.
"We need to link all these people up so they don't feel so alone. The most important thing is hope and confidence. We need to see ourselves much as the UAW organizers saw themselves a long time ago -- as the only people who were going to make change. . . .
"They won because they were able to persuade workers to trust each other. They knew that trust and confidence in each other was the key to fighting back. They knew that no individual could change Ford but there was strength in numbers. When people stood up in the plants they organized them with other workers so the company and the company union could not stomp them. This is what people just did to stop the company from singling out and defeating Jimbo Blackbird. Solidarity works!"
Quote of the Month:
"A criminal is a person with predatory instincts without sufficient capital to form a corporation."
-- Howard Scott
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