From: "cwright" <cwright-AT-21stcentury.net>
Subject: AUT: Fw: [workersdemocracy] Struggle for a Union Part II
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 18:25:03 -0600



----- Original Message -----
From: "jgab55" <jgabriel55-AT-igc.org>
To: <workersdemocracy-AT-yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 11:02 PM
Subject: [workersdemocracy] Struggle for a Union Part II


> Hello everyone,
> First of all thanks to all the NY members for their great help in
> organizing the weekend protests and to all the out-of-town WDN
> members who came in.  It was great to see you all and get a chance to
> discuss the future of the Network.  Having said that I want to give
> you an update on my union organizing drive.
>
> After we sent the Enable Workers for Justice letter there was a week
> delay while the agency trained "supervisors" in how to fend off the
> union and began holding mandatory meetings to talk about how bad a
> union would be.  Not very original.  Then a couple of Board members
> show up in my office because they assume I'm the leader.  Hmmm, maybe
> this has to do with me being white and educated?  So we danced around
> that a while, "No, I'm not the leader.  You need to speak with the
> whole committee.  No, I can't give you information, you need to get
> it from the whole committee.  Whatever I tell you would only be
> second hand and completely undependable. Blah blah blah."  The bottom
> line is they want the right to "discovery" (Did I mention the Board
> President is a lawyer?) ie we send them all our documentation and
> then they will meet with us afterwards.  Sound fair to you?  This is
> within the context of continual harrassment and intimidation.  People
> who are anti-union get special favors, people who are pro-union are
> threatened with termination and grilled by supervisors.  We have
> filed several Unfair Labor Practices and more are on the way.
>
> In response to the Board's totally unreasonable request we sent back
> a letter saying hey look we got the goods on you, here's the rough
> outline of the type of documentation that we have.  But we totally
> don't trust you because of the hostile environment you got going on.
> Therefore as soon as you accept employer neutrality (this means they
> don't interfere in our campaign to organize) and card check (this
> means we don't hold an election but instead they recognize the union
> after we get a majority of cards signed) then we will take that as a
> show of good faith and show you the documentation we have.  If you
> won't play ball we go public.
>
> So the cards are out on the table.  The Board met tonight, it should
> be interesting to see what they do.  In the mean time the organizing
> continues with a strong community based focus.  Wednesday night we
> are having a potluck for all the workers and their friends and
> family.  We are holding a first shift potluck at 6 pm and a second
> shift potluck at 11 am.
>
> In the mean time (you are going to love this!!) at the national
> student conference on Friday in NYC I talked at a labor workshop
> about my organizing campaign and what SEIU is trying to do to destroy
> it.  Brenda Stokly, president of AFSCME Local 215, really freaked
> out.  She responded with a long speach about how the problem with the
> AFL-CIO are only at the international leadership level.  I thought
> this was pretty gutsy considering all the local AFSCME leadership
> from NYC that is behind bars at the moment.  Her main point was we've
> got the AFL-CIO love it or leave it and anyone who doesn't love it is
> clearly anti-union.  That was the FRIENDLY part.  Afterwards I went
> up and tried to talk to her about the specifics of my situation and
> her response was if SEIU wants to organize a union why wouldn't you
> want them?  In other words we are charity cases desperately begging
> the AFL-CIO to be our savior no matter how pathetic the crumbs they
> throw us might be.  When I told my co-workers what Sister Stokley
> said they were OUTRAGED!  Maybe Sister Stokley should come to NJ and
> tell my struggling co-workers to their faces that having a SEIU union
> rep sell them out to management doesn't mean that SEIU is a bad
> union.  I can just Imagine the type of response she would get.  I
> didn't get a chance to respond to this crap from Sister Stokley
> because her co-union hack Mark Letwin hustled her out.  Isn't it
> special how these "progressive" union leaders keep each other
> protected from the rabble in the streets?  The sad part is I truly
> believe that before Sister Stokley got caught up in being a hack for
> the AFL-CIO that she had really good politics.  It's not that the
> union hacks are horrible people, it's that they are part of a system
> that seeks to destroy the beautiful creativity of workers organizing.
>
> That's all from the trenches tonight.  Thanks to everyone for all
> your support.  I'll keep you all updated.
>
> Comradely,
> Jeannette
>
>
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