And the First Amendment Says...

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787

"Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech."
Benjamin Franklin, writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, 1722

Why the trip through the works and words of our Founding Fathers, you ask? Because, if you travel over to Jim Martin jr's blog site, you will see the following:

ANNOUNCEMENT

Tomorrow, November 10th 2006, will be my last day as a benefit rep. I was told that I will be removed effective Tuesday, 11/14. It has been decided that it would be best if I was de-appointed and put back on the floor in light of my open criticism of the union, the implied criticism of our president, and in my opinion our philosophical differences with respect to communication and unionism. I am not aware of who will replace me. Please continue to visit the delphibuyout site. It has been an awesome 10 years being the PM Benefit Rep and I look forward to representing you again someday. Thank you for voting for me.

Hmmm...so, on his way out the door, Gary thought that it would be in the best interest of our union to remove a benefit rep with 10 years experience in the job. This decision comes at a critical time in our union, a time when our membership (or, what's left of it), needs all the help it can get. Great job. I'm sure that this decision makes perfect sense to someone. Perhaps Gary will be the one now running benefit calls to the people who populate the PM shift.

Later,

Dawn

Can I Get a Hand? I Think There's a Knife in My Back...

...yeah, and it hurts like a bitch, too. I wasn't going to get involved in the general election because, well, I'm not going to be around for much longer, after all. Hell, I wasn't sure if I was even going to go to the hall and vote. I am now.

Promptly at around six o'clock this morning (OK, I was running a touch late, but I still clocked in on time, so that's all that matters. Nyah.), I was handed my friend Mike Winkler's latest propaganda in the Shop Chairman's race. As I lazily got myself acclimated to my surroundings, I began to peruse Mike's leaflet. And then I got to the section about his opponent Joe Merlo. Needless to say, I woke up pretty quickly after that.

Just in case you haven't read Mike's leaflet, let me share with you his paragraph on Joe Merlo:


"An NTBU (non traditional bargaining unit) with a 1993 seniority date now wants you to elect him as your next Shop Chairman with no experience as an elected representative with this local at all. This is not the time to elect a candidate that has not shown any interest in representing this membership at any level. In fact, when his name is mentioned, all I hear is, "I thought he was management the way he acts and rides around on his orange scooter." If he had any negotiating history in any of his prior jobs, his leaflet did not reflect it anywhere that I read. Maybe his buddy Gennaro Russo told him that he didn't need any experience to be the next Shop Chariman. NTBU (non traditional bargaining unit) jobs normally would be and a lot of them are now being done by salaried personnel. These are not mormal bargainin unit jobs, they are awarded more by their qualifications or who you may know, rather than what a union was built on; seniority. In Joe's case, we know it wasn't his seniority that got him his job, it was who he knew in management. This leads me to believe my opponent may be nothing more than a puppet for management or maybe for the man that nominated him, Gennaro Russo. It is my opinion an agreement was made that if Joe was to win this election, Genarro Russo would be his assistant. Now you want to talk about leadership that lacks experience! The people that knew Mr. Russo's representative skills and leadership voted him out of office a long, long time ago. Brothers and Sisters, it is plain and simple; a vote for Joe Merlo is a vote for Gennaro Russo. "

As if we all weren't having enough fun at work as it is, somebody's got to go and drive one more wedge between people in the plant. Yet one more time, NTBUs get thrown under the bus, this time, by my friend. To this I say, thanks.

Thanks for assuming that NTBUs weren't going to vote for you anyway, Mike. You may not have been right about that before, but you probably are now.

Thanks for exemplifying, one more time, the feeling that, the union wants our dues, our votes, but after you're done with us, we can go away (wham, bam, thank you ma'am), because, after all, we're not REAL union. Because we have to EARN our jobs EVERYDAY. Oh, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting that I probably got my job because I knew somebody, not because I'm qualified.

Thanks for making the impression that NTBUs don't care about our union. I may not go to meetings, but, for fuck's sake, I vaguely recall freezing my pasty white ass of at a certain labor rally in February. I also recall being available to help my union reps whenever I'm able, which, oh by the way, helps the people that they represent.

Thanks for reinforcing (again) the stereotype that NTBUs are nothing but management's little bitches, who are ready, willing and able to back-stab their way off of the floor. As if we didn't hear that shit enough before, that's all we needed.

And thanks for giving me the incentive I needed to come down to the hall and vote on Wednesday.

Dawn