At SEIU Local 73, Controversy Follows Ballot Count

The results are in from the internal union election at SEIU Local 73 in Chicago. But the controversy is far from over… with allegations of election misconduct filed just days after the ballot count.

Here’s what’s happening:

On October 23rd, the votes were tallied in the mail-in balloting to elect the union’s top officers and 30-member Executive Board. The election came after a two-year trusteeship imposed by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and a 2017 court battle launched by Local 73 members to bring an end to the trusteeship. SEIU’s trusteeship featured a cast of well-known characters, including Eliseo Medina.

Who won the election?

SEIU’s trustee, Dian Palmer. But by just 375 votes. Until recently, Palmer was the president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin. She’s also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board. She beat out Remzi Jaos, a former staff member at Local 73. He’s part of a slate called “Members leading Members” slate, which pledged to return the union to local control.

As far as the election for Local 73’s Executive Board, the “Members leading Members” slate won eight of 30 seats.

Participation in the election was very low. Only 2,300 ballots were cast from the union’s 25,000 members, who work in the public sector in Illinois and Northwestern Indiana.

Just 6 days after the vote count, the “Members leading Members” slate formally appealed the election. It also plans to file charges with the US Department of Labor over alleged misconduct by SEIU officials during the election, including using the union’s resources to campaign for SEIU’s candidates.

For more details, check out a one-page leaflet from the “Members leading Members” slate as well as the election appeal it filed earlier this week.

   "Members leading Members" Leaflet on SEIU Local 73's Elections: October 2018 by tastysternburger on Scribd

   Election Appeal regarding SEIU Local 73's Officer Elections (10-29-2018) by tastysternburger on Scribd

Insiders: SEIU Trustees Fire 10 Staffers Seeking to Run for Officer Positions at SEIU Local 73

At SEIU Local 73 in Illinois, two trustees appointed by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry have reportedly fired about ten members of the union’s staff after they announced plans to stand as candidates for the union’s executive board and top officer jobs as part of an opposition slate of candidates, according to insiders.

The firings by SEIU trustees Dian Palmer and Denise Poloyac come just weeks after more than a dozen members of SEIU Local 73 sued Mary Kay Henry in federal court in an attempt to force SEIU to end its trusteeship and to allow Local 73’s members to elect an executive board and officers to run the union of approximately 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

The fired staffers are part of a slate of candidates called “Members Leading Members,” which recently launched a website describing its candidates and platform. The website, which criticizes SEIU’s “disastrous trusteeship,” includes language like this:

instead of preparing the membership for self governance, like they promised, the Trustees are trying to extend the trusteeship or merge our local with [SEIU] Local 1 and/or HCII [SEIU Healthcare Illinois-Indiana].  All of this in spite of the fact that Local 73 members have repeatedly demanded elections and have expressed their anger clearly in the past 4 membership meetings in 2017. It is unfortunate that the International Union and the Trustees are not listening. For these reasons, we have launched our slate and have sent a strong message to the International Union in a petition that this Union belongs to us. We demand an election right now.

…Join the "Members Leading Members Slate" in our fight to restore the power of our Local to those who make it great: our very own members, not individuals selected by the International (SEIU).  We deserve the right to chose who leads our Union, not be dictated to by the International.

On January 8, Palmer and Poloyac sent an e-mail to all Local 73 staffers announcing the immediate suspension of staff members for “launch[ing] an attack on the Union that is seriously divisive to our unity…” (See a copy of the e-mail below.) 

Subsequently, approximately 10 staff members were fired from their jobs, according to internal sources.

Among the fired staffers is Remzi Jaos, who says he plans to run for Local 73’s president. Until his firing, Jaos directed Local 73’s Higher Education Division and earlier was a staffer at SEIU Local 1 and the Illinois Nurses Association, according to his bio on the “Members Leading Members” website.

Other fired staffers reportedly include Willie English (running for Secretary-Treasurer), Brenda Woodall (running for Vice-President, and Rick Loza (also running for Vice-President).  

When will internal officer elections at Local 73 actually take place?

Not clear.

A lawsuit, filed by 13 rank-and-file members of Local 73 on December 14th, asked a federal judge to order elections sometime in February 2018. In court filings, however, SEIU’s attorneys denied multiple allegations in the lawsuit and asserted that the court has no jurisdiction over this issue.

Meanwhile, SEIU officials have scheduled a “Leadership Conference” for January 27 and a membership meeting for February 10.

Stay tuned.

   SEIU Trustees Suspend Local 73 staff members: January 8, 2018 by tastysternburger on Scribd

More Challenges to SEIU's Trusteeship in Nevada

SEIU is facing a second lawsuit over its trusteeship in Nevada, according to court records.

The latest suit was filed August 9 by SEIU Nevada’s former president, Cherie Mancini, who was removed from her position by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry earlier this year. A union steward from Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospital is a co-plaintiff in the case.

The lawsuit names SEIU, Mary Kay Henry and Luisa Blue as defendants.

“This is a power grab by the international (union),” Mancini’s lawyer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (“Former SEIU president sues to get her job back,” August 25, 2017). “SEIU comes in and imposes a trusteeship and puts in place the government they want,” Luisa Blue, appointed by Henry as the “trustee” of SEIU Nevada, dismissed the claims in the lawsuit.

Mancini’s attorneys have asked the judge for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against SEIU, according to court records.

Here’s an excerpt from the lawsuit, which summarizes the violations that SEIU allegedly committed. A full copy of the lawsuit is below.

After the emergency trusteeship was imposed by SEIU on Local 1107, Defendants breached the SEIU Constitution in the following ways: Defendants failed to hold a trusteeship hearing within thirty (30) days of imposition of the emergency trusteeship; failed to notice the membership, including Plaintiff Frederick Gustafson, in a timely fashion regarding the trusteeship hearing; failed to properly notice the Local 1107 membership once the emergency trusteeship hearing was set; failed to issue a decision regarding the merits of the trusteeship within sixty (60) days; denied Local 1107 due process via a full and fair hearing on the merits of the emergency trusteeship; failed to establish a sufficient good faith emergency basis for the imposition of the emergency trusteeship; failed to address good cause for not adhering to the reasonable time periods for these procedures; and failed to address the legitimacy and necessity of continuing the trusteeship at the trusteeship hearing held on July 13, 2017, seventy six (76) days after the emergency trusteeship was imposed.

SEIU and Mary Kay Henry are represented by Glenn Rothner (Rothner, Segall, Greenstone and Leheny), a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in imposing trusteeships on local unions.

  Cherie Mancini vs SEIU's Trusteeship of SEIU Nevada: 8-9-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

Latest on SEIU's Trusteeship of SEIU Nevada

The New York-New York Casino

Here’s the latest on SEIU’s trusteeship of SEIU Nevada, a 9,000-member union of public and private-sector workers.

On July 13, SEIU held a five-hour trusteeship hearing at the “New York-New York” Casino in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal (“Las Vegas Union Debates Return to Local Control,” July 14, 2017).

SEIU officials were hush-hush about what happened at the hearing, offering only vague statements to the newspaper.

One union member who attended the hearing told the Review-Journal that “about 25” union members were in attendance, including the union’s former president, Cherie Mancini, who was removed from her position by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry on April 28, 2017.

What happens next?

A hearing officer appointed by Mary Kay Henry will prepare a written ruling as to whether or not Mary Kay Henry’s emergency trusteeship should continue for another year or two. Difficult to predict that one, right?

Below is the four-page order that Henry issued on April 28 describing her justification for the emergency trusteeship … including what she describes as “warring factions” on SEIU Nevada’s Executive Board along with “name calling and shouting matches.” 

Sounds a bit like Trump’s White House, right?

Hey, Mary Kay, could you serve up one of your trusteeship orders on The Donald?

Stay tuned for the next purple shindig at a Las Vegas casino near you.

  SEIU's Order Imposing an Emergency Trusteeship on SEIU Nevada: 4-28-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU's Mary Kay Henry Imposes "Emergency Trusteeship" on SEIU Nevada

Here’s the latest.

Last Friday (April 28), SEIU President Mary Kay Henry implemented an “emergency trusteeship” on 9,000-member SEIU Nevada, according to an announcement on the union’s website and a formal order pasted below. The action removes the local union’s Executive Board and suspends its constitution.

Friday’s action came two days after Henry removed SEIU Nevada’s President Cherie Mancini and Executive Vice President Sharon Kisling and asked the local union’s Executive Board to meet hours later with two of her representatives, Neal Bisno and Deedee Fitzpatrick. 

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, here’s what happened during that private meeting on Wednesday night (Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Nevada SEIU asks parent union to take control of operations,” April 27, 2017):

SEIU Local 1107’s executive board voted Wednesday night to request an emergency trusteeship be imposed, SEIU International spokeswoman Janet Veum said. A source with direct knowledge of the vote said it was 17-to-7, with five executive board members abstaining…

Typically, the international union would conduct a hearing and have a vote of its international executive board before imposing trusteeship, Veum said. But because SEIU 1107 made an emergency request, international president Mary Kay Henry could expedite the process by imposing the trusteeship before the hearing is held.

Who’s running SEIU Nevada now?

Henry appointed Lisa Blue and Martin Manteca to serve as “Trustee” and “Deputy Trustee,” respectively. Blue was the “Chief Elected Officer” (CEO) at SEIU Local 521 in California until May of 2016, when Henry appointed her as one of SEIU International’s seven Executive Vice Presidents. Manteca is the Director of External Organizing for SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles.

Here’s Henry’s trusteeship order:

  SEIU's Emergency Trusteeship Order over SEIU Nevada: 4-28-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

Dignity Healthcare Workers Bolt SEIU-UHW, Leaving Stan Lyles to Swallow His Words

Stan "Mr. Integrity" Lyles

Some workers at Dignity Healthcare report that not all employees were affected by SEIU-UHW’s recent bargaining during which management demanded more cuts to workers' wages and benefits.

In 2015, a unit of workers at Dignity's Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles left SEIU-UHW after requesting an NLRB election to dump the union. The workers include clinical lab scientists, social workers (MSWs and LCSWs), radiation therapists, and nuclear medicine technologists.

According to NLRB records, the workers filed a formal “decertification” petition with NLRB Region 31 in Los Angeles. After SEIU-UHW officials realized they’d get trounced in an election, they decided to threw in the towel and let the workers go without an election -- what’s called “disclaiming interest in the unit,” in NLRB parlance.

Why did the Dignity workers bolt from SEIU-UHW?

They say SEIU-UHW never did anything for them... and wouldn’t even return workers' phone calls.

The workers’ action is especially embarrassing for SEIU-UHW Vice President Stan Lyles, who formerly worked at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Lyes tells everyone he’s got “rockstar” status with his former co-workers at Northridge.

Not quite, Stan.

But... if you really want to see a rockstar performance by Stan, check out the following  video of Stan attacking SEIU for its undemocratic practices in 2008.

Lyles, speaking at a meeting of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), attacks SEIU officials for making back-room deals with CEOs -- including a secret deal with Tenet Healthcare to allow the company to subcontract the jobs of more than 10% of SEIU-UHW's members.

That's one of the dirty moves that prompted SEIU-UHW members to publicly criticize Andy Stern and SEIU in 2007 and 2008, which then caused Stern to remove SEIU-UHW's elected leaders through a trusteeship in 2009.

After imposing the trusteeship, SEIU officials gave Lyles a big purple paycheck to abandon his principles and pledge his allegiance to Andy Stern, Dave Regan, and the other Purple Palace officials whom he had so sharply criticized.

Lyles, who had aggressively opposed the trusteeship, quickly changed his tune. Ain’t it interesting what a boatload of cash will due to the moral compass of some people?

Perhaps that’s why Lyles has earned the nickname of “Mr. Integrity.”

Here’s the video of Lyles attacking SEIU in 2008, before he received his big payoff from Andy Stern:

Leaked Memo: SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Wages Internal War against Mary Kay Henry and SEIU

Dave Regan’s faintly concealed anger towards SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, which is contained in a June 6 letter to long-term care workers, has now burst into the open thanks to a leaked memo.

Today, the San Francisco Business Times published this article: 

“'Massive Betrayal': Leaked Memo Reveals SEIU's Internal War over Health Care Workers.”

So who’s the author of the seven-page "leaked memo"?

Dave Regan!

Here are some excerpts from the San Francisco Business Times article (the full article is below. Btw, the leaked memo has not yet surfaced publicly):

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values. 

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

Another quote indicates Regan may be actively working to undermine SEIU’s efforts in California.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

Of course, Regan's righteous indignation is tainted by so much hypocrisy (and plain old bullsh*t) that it's hard to know where to start.

Dave Regan

Regan says SEIU’s decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership."

Regan apparently has forgotten about the undemocratic and disastrous trusteeship that he himself imposed on California healthcare workers in 2009. Since parachuting into California, Regan has a eliminated the defined benefit pensions of more than 25,000 SEIU-UHW members and replaced them with 401(k)s. He's accomplished this disgusting feat by brazenly lying to workers and violating SEIU-UHW's own constitution… as he famously did to 4,000 workers at the Daughters of Charity Health System.

Today, Regan professes to feel heartfelt pain that SEIU officials are harming "the interests of California healthcare workers." 

Gimme a break.

Remember, this is the same guy who, soon after parachuting into California as Andy Stern’s trustee, promptly fired several thousand democratically elected SEIU-UHW Shop Stewards and then imposed "loyalty oaths" on union members.

He reportedly directed a campaign of threats, intimidation and even violence against rank-and-file workers who favored joining another union… and even had his staff attack 85-year-old labor icon Dolores Huerta and make death threats against workers.

 

Mary Kay Henry

This is the same guy who liquidated SEIU-UHW members’ $4.1 million strike fund in the waning days of the trusteeship, when Regan exercised total control over the union’s finances.

This is the same guy who has refused to allow SEIU-UHW’s own Executive Board to see a copy of the secret deal he signed with the California Hospital Association, which reportedly gags workers and forfeits their right to strike.

Today, Regan passionately defends the right of workers to stay in SEIU-UHW. But in 2008-09, he aggressively backed SEIU’s effort to transfer SEIU-UHW's long-term care workers into a separate union by arguing it would be better for workers.

How much integrity can Regan claim to have when he flip-flops so violently? Not much. 

Yo Dave, take a long hard look in the mirror.

Here's the full article:

San Francisco Business Times

'Massive betrayal': Leaked memo reveals SEIU's internal war over health care workers

Jun 17, 2015

Chris Rauber

California's largest health care union is being cut virtually in half by the Service Employees' International Union's senior leaders in Washington, D.C., a step its Oakland-based leader calls "devastating" to union members.

Dave Regan, president of the Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers' West local, which currently represents about 150,000 workers in the Golden State, said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry announced the move May 21. It will slice 70,000 home care workers from UHW and transfer them to another SEIU local, leaving about 80,000 hospital and clinic service workers in the rump UHW local.

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values.

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

"I want to make it clear that I have offered my thoughts not in my capacity as the President of UHW," he wrote, "but rather in my capacity as an individual member of SEIU, who is protected by the SEIU Constitution."

Officials at UHW didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. But SEIU, which boasts 2 million members and 150 locals nationwide, provided a statement from Mary Kay Henry on Wednesday afternoon.

Henry's response focused on the need for good long-term-care jobs, without delving into Regan's allegations. "That's why SEIU has begun the process of uniting all long-term care members in California into one strong union with one clear goal," she said, "winning $15 an hour and a union for everyone in the state who provides care and support to seniors and people with disabilities."

The newly chartered Local 2015 will have more than 280,000 members, Henry said, making it the largest such union local in the nation.

Another SEIU memo, this one reportedly written April 14 by International Executive Vice President Kirk Adams, confirms that creation of the new long-term-care local in California is starting this month, and involves shifting more than 200,000 SEIU workers from their current locals to a single California unit focusing on nursing home and home care.

It also suggests that the fight between UHW and the national leadership will have extensive fallout.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

A long-brewing battle

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

But he insisted the Oakland local will keep fighting for its controversial "partnership" with the California Hospital Association, designed to help UHW recruit more members; for enhanced state funding of the Medi-Cal program for the poor, and for a $15 per hour minimum wage via a planned November 2016 ballot initiative.

Ironically, the current hostility between Oakland-based UHW and the parent union echoes a similar battle six and a half years years ago when former longtime UHW President Sal Rosselli tangled with top leaders and left to start the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has battled SEIU and UHW ever since. The union leader who replaced the fiery Rosselli: Dave Regan.

When I reached Rosselli by phone, he thoroughly enjoyed the irony of the situation, noting that Regan is now tangling with Henry over the same issue that splintered the union almost seven years ago, whether long-term-care workers are better off in UHW and other broad health care locals or in a specialized unit.

SEIU Deals Setback to Union Demcracy via Lawsuit against Dissidents

Labor journalist Steve Early has penned an interesting article about SEIU’s ongoing assault against union democracy.

No… it’s not about Dave Regan’s show trials against union members for “disloyalty.”

Instead, the article describes how SEIU’s civil lawsuit against NUHW’s founders has rewritten federal case law so as to strengthen the Purple Palace’s top-down control over union members.

The legal ruling stems from SEIU’s disastrous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW. Back in 2009, SEIU’s head honchos in Washington, DC ordered UHW to transfer 65,000 of its members to a corrupt union headed by Tyrone Freeman, who was later convicted of 11 criminal counts.

In January of 2009, SEIU seized control of UHW and sued its leaders after UHW’s 100-member Executive Board voted unanimously to oppose the transfer unless the affected union members were first given a right to vote on the transfer.

Here’s where SEIU’s harmful legal precedent comes in.

In court, UHW’s former leaders -- who subsequently helped create NUHW -- said they acted properly because they simply followed the explicit directions of their union’s members, who overwhelmingly opposed the undemocratic transfer. The former leaders argued that their first responsibility was to the local members who elected them to office, served on the union’s 100-member Executive Board, created UHW’s constitution, and paid their salaries.

The Purple Palace argued the opposite… basically saying, “Screw the members. We call the shots!” SEIU claimed that local union leaders’ primary responsibility is to SEIU’s headquarters in D.C. -- some 3,000 miles away! Here’s how Early describes it:

The gist of SEIU's case was that the connection between a national union and any of its local affiliates is just like the Bank of America's relationship to branch banks. If the parent company (in this case, SEIU) wants to reorganize a local branch or change its management in any way, there's no legal basis for objecting. Despite being elected by the members, local officers owe a greater “fiduciary duty” to the international union than to anyone else. They must comply with any headquarters directive, even if the workers they represent are opposed to it.

And that’s what the court decided, thereby dealing a big setback to the cause of workers and union democracy.

Dan Siegel, a lawyer who’s handled similar cases since the 1970s and defended NUHW’s leaders against SEIU’s lawsuit, put it this way:

"This is really a very nefarious decision. It turns the law of fiduciary duty on its head. Local union officials can be accused of breaching their fiduciary duty if they disobey directives from national union officials contrary to the interests of their members."

Siegel fears that:

“more local union officials will be faced with a conflict of interest when their national union and their members tell them to do different things. If they stick with the workers, they could face a lawsuit for damages, measured by the entire budget of the local.”

Another legal observer describes the court’s unhelpful judicial "preference for a top-down style of unionism, favoring hierarchical, organizational discipline over the principles of internal union democracy and member control of unions."

And here’s another indication of how bad the court’s decision is:  The court said UHW’s former leaders violated their “fiduciary duty” by resisting the transfer of the 65,000 workers... even though SEIU itself has NEVER EVER transferred the workers since it seized control of UHW in 2009!

What about NUHW’s leaders, who are personally on the hook as a result of the court’s horrible decision? Here’s what John Borsos, Secretary-Treasurer of NUHW, told Early:

“I wasn’t elected by the international union. I was elected by the rank-and-file members. That, in my opinion, is who I owed my duty to, which is why I don’t have any remorse about listening to the voice of our members at the expense of the international union. If we had to do it again, we’d do the same thing.”

Here’s a link to the full article on ZNet.

SEIU-UHW Member at Kaiser: "We Don't Get Representation. And We Need It... It's Heartbreaking"

Here’s the latest article about the Kaiser election. It features an interview with a Medical Assistant at Kaiser Hayward Medical Center named Mell Garcia. The article, entitled “Nail-Biting Time at Kaiser,” appears in CounterPunch and is authored by Cal Winslow.

In the article, Garcia describes how she was a Shop Steward at her hospital for many years... until Dave Regan removed her and 1,000 other stewards during SEIU's trusteeship in 2009. Next, Regan prohibited union members from being stewards unless they signed loyalty oaths. 

Today, says Garcia, SEIU-UHW fails to provide even basic representation to Kaiser workers. And there's plenty of evidence to back up Garcia's statements... including the hundreds of "duty of fair representation" charges that workers have filed against SEIU-UHW... as well as the tape recording of SEIU-UHW's shop stewards describing how Kaiser basically has free rein to fire workers, including at least 239 during the past nine months. Check out excerpts from Garcia's interview below.

Meanwhile, a Kaiser worker from Southern California describes how absurd things have gotten in her hospital as far as representation.  

Before the election, you couldn't get a call back from SEIU. But now, bcuz of the election, the SEIU reps are all over our hospital. At lunch there just about glued to our hips bcuz there trying to listen to our conversations. Basically spying on us, won't leave us alone. Where were they when we needed representation?

Finally, here are some excerpts from the interview with Garcia:

We don’t get representation. And we need it. The workers need stewards and they need to know who they are, they need to recognize them, they need to trust them… Workers need stewards who will stand by them, who will be there with them, be on their side... That’s how trust is built. The steward should be an example to the workers.

Now we can’t find a steward. It’s heartbreaking. I can’t do it. Management won’t let me. But I do my best. It’s what I’m like. It’s why I get here early, every day I walk the floors. I make connections at lunch time, at five o’clock I walk the floors again.

I was a steward because workers want protection and because they have rights, rights that they want respected. And that’s what the contract is about.

I know what a union is and what it’s supposed to be like and how it’s to be run.  It’s not something for one person or two people and it’s not to be run from the top down but from the bottom up by every single worker in every worksite.

It’s not for retaliation and not for cronyism.