If Membership Meetings were considered Dinner Theatre then Tuesday night's performance should have been called "We're Union, We're Family, We're Nuts".
Order in the Court--Session is About to Begin!
Again, no expense was spared to feed the crowd called
out for tonight's meeting. The hungry were wolfing it down as early as 5:30pm
(an hour before the meeting started). On the menu were various cookies, chips
and varieties of meat sandwiches. It soon became apparent that this pack of
carnivores were hungry for some blood with those meat sandwiches. I think they
had someone in mind...
The meeting was called to order by the Cheshire
Queen (Moreno) and proceeded with rapid-fire motions to accept the finance
reports and minutes of past meetings. Most members barely had time to get them
in their hands (much less read them) before the President moved on to the next.
That's when "democracy dementia" (CWA 9510 form of democracy) took
over.
Act l in this "The Theater of the Absurd"
It began with
the Executive Horde minutes of October 22, 1997. There was an innocuous looking
motion [Minimal
makes motions] that read: "Move that Sue Inman
receive her quarterly steward refund, pending her payment of six months in
arrears dues". [It
looked like this]
Was it innocuous? Sue Inman didn't think so
and made a motion to hold it out under new business for discussion. Thumbs down
voted the subjects. In a show of 'faux fairness', Sue attempted to make a brief
statement that her dues were not in arrears and both President & Secretary
Treasurer knew that at the time the motion was made. Moreno cut her short and
said, "it's been noted in the minutes". Then why the motion? No answer, and as
soon as Sue tried to ask questions, she was cut off by a "point of order". What
was Sue trying to say that was not allowed to be heard (not that many were
listening)? [click
here to see].
Act ll: "Let the Ceremonies Begin"
Vivian
Thunell was standing ready to fill the vacant executive board seat created by
the resignation of executive board member Elaine DeVille. History lesson: Thunell (an obedient faithful
minion) was the candidate of choice for Moreno's court. Thunell already had two
losses under her belt (for positions in the GT unit). Moreno is unwilling to
take any chances this time around on how the GT members might vote in a real
election to fill the vacant position so the Horde quickly anoints
Thunell.
CWA Staff representative, Cherie Brokaw was on hand to do the
honors. Vivian primps herself for the magic moment when she accepts the oath of
office. I half expected dimmed lights and mood music. After hugs were
exchanged, I wanted to go outside and see if doves were being released to the
heavens. I have not seen this much phoniness since the Solidarity II rally in
Washington
Act lll: "An Injury to One, is the Way We Like It"
The next scenario in the
'Cheshire
Queen's' theater was a motion I made at the November 18, 1997 Executive
Horde meeting. It went like this:
Move that I
be allowed to respond to the personal attacks made on me by Judy Gipson and
Mike Milliman in the November Edition of the Orange Empire News. My response to
each is to be published separately in the next issue after I submit
them.
My motion was defeated at that meeting 4-4. When the
Cheshire Queen cast her vote to make it four yes, five no, I had to explain
that the chairperson votes to create a tie if opposed or to break a
tie if in favor of a motion. If there is a tie vote the motion fails. She
retracted her vote and didn't even thank me for the tip!
When I tried to
hold this motion out for discussion under new business at the membership
meeting, guess what happened? If you want to see how this part of the act
played [click
here].
Act lV: "State of the Union - If There's Still Dues Money
There's Still A Union" [Reports]
Reports of Officers:
ACT FIVE: "Democracy Dementia" in Local 9510 - Where
Personal Loathing Transcends Civil Rights.
Complaint #1
Complaint #2
Complaint #3
There are no intermissions in this theater! Those four acts were
completed with the outcomes surprising no one. Like sharks in baited water (no
offense intended to our off shore friends) I was like chum in their feasting
frenzy. Some members were satiated and began to leave the meeting. Others left
in disgust. Under new business, there were motions to be made and they came
fast and furious...
Wham! Move that…"the members direct Mike Drake (me)
to remove all references of CWA Local 9510, title of the office in the Local I
hold, CWA Logo (and a couple of other things I can't remember) from my web
site". I tried to amend the motion to include my website address and needless
to say, it failed.
After the motion passed the Cheshire Queen
asked if I would comply. My answer was no because I believe the motion was out
of order since it would restrict the free speech of union members guaranteed
under Title I of the LMRDA.
Wham! Move that…
"Mike Drake (me) to stop doing productive work (work done by the secretaries of
the local and covered in their contract). According to the maker of the motion
there have been three grievances filed by the local's secretaries. [Two of the
grievances allege I am doing their work and one alleges sexual harassment by
one of the other Officers] To no one's surprise, least of all mine, the motion
passed. Personally, if anyone alleges productive work is being done in Local
9510 it should be considered a false accusation!
If you would
like to see how the 'paper war' from the secretaries started...[click
here]
The next motion slowed things down a bit. I made
it.
Move to: "Give the General Telephone unit of
Local 9510 a jurisdictional waiver to Local 9588." If you want to know the
outcome of this one you will have to...[click
here]
The final curtain call came to close the meeting (Gee,
is the meeting over? Am I still alive?).
Good & Welfare: Things were
good for the welfare of those present. The Dinner Theatre concluded for the
evening. I imagine the Queen's court stuck around to collect their UA (union
time off the job with pay) chits and bag the leftovers.
Here is my commentary on tonight's
performance:
For over 30 years I have
always said; "You can say what you want to about our union. God knows CWA has
its faults but imagine what the companies would do to us without CWA. They do a
fair job of jacking us around with it! CWA will protect us if one of us gets on
the wrong side of the company or one of it's managers."
Another thing I have said to people in our union is; "I'll be
damned if I will be afraid of the union, or what it might do to me for speaking
out on some of the weird stuff I think it does". However, when it comes to
defending you or myself against the union that makes it so we do not have to be
afraid of the company, we will probably have to go it alone or with very little
help!
Hey! I look at it this way, if I go
down, I'll go down 'smoking'! But I will still have this web
site...