Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Reason I Vote NO On The By-Law Changes

By Station Agent Christine Williams

There are so many reasons that I don’t know where to start. I don’t know, but this whole thing is suspect to me. In my opinion, the last thing this union needs is to amend the Local 100 By Laws.

Think about it. Right now TWU Local 100 has a lot of very important issues to deal with. I think the number one issue is to increase and encourage members to pay their dues. Almost half the membership cannot even vote on this issue, so whats the point?

Changing a union's by laws is a very big deal. These changes can permanently alter this union and burden the membership for years to come. Are any of these changes going to benefit the union as a whole? Or will it merely centralize the control to a few people at the top? Will any of these changes give more control to its members to make changes in union leadership? Or will these changes make it harder for the members to choose who they want to represent them?

Just to give you a couple of examples of what I mean: For one, this union wants us to vote on moving this year’s union election up to June. I mean, really, is that so important that you have to amend the union's by laws?

They also want to change the way to choose delegates that go to the convention.

I can think of a thousand things that can be done to improve this union. And I know you can too. Why spend tens of thousands of dollars on this election to change the union's by laws, when we should be using this money to run the union?

I think the number one issue for this union right now is to encourage all Local 100 members to pay their dues! This union needs to increase the amount of members in good standing to have a fair and honest election. But it looks like this union has another agenda.

I guess it’s going to be up to us, the members of TWU Local 100 to stand up and Take Back Our Union. By not paying your dues you give the union leadership more power to dictate the out come of union referendums and union elections.

I am not going to tell you how to vote, but please just read the ballot for yourselves and ask yourselves some questions. How will all these amendment changes benefit Local 100 as a whole? How will these changes help me and my fellow brothers and sisters in TWU Local 100? Then make your choice.

I have already made my choice. And that is why I vote “NO “ on the by law changes!

1 comment:

strictlyolskol said...

As every one should know by now, the by-law changes have passed. But we all knew that it would so i'm not really that suprised. for all the people in this union who are not paying your dues, you get what you pay for. you pay nothing you get nothing.by not paying your dues you give the union leadership more power to dictate the out come of union elections. so when you are sitting in your booth at work and moaning and groaning about how screwed up this union is, just wait till contract time!!! we are really going to get the shaft then! time to stop b*tching and complaining and start doing something about it!!! PAY YOUR DUES!!!