IBT VOTING PROCEDURES

planedoctor · Joined: Oct 08, 2002 Posts: 306

Well here I go again. Two years ago I was complaining about the same topic. The voting policies and procedures that the IBT uses for us.

Well after bitching to the head of the Airline Division and a few discussions with the local leaders there was nothing done in the past 2 years.

Go figure! It really doesn't surprise me. Hell I actually forgot about it for a while till another vote was about to happen. I made a prediction to some of my coworkers that something would go wrong.

For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to be around and get the news first hand here is a summary of the events.

The screw up was isolated to local 769. The way the system(not very good) works is the locals print mailing labels for the ballots and mailing envelopes. These labels get mailed to the International in Washington DC. The International then takes them to a third party mailer who packs the ballots in the envelopes places the secret envelope in the mailing envelope along with the return mailer. They then mail them.

There was a screw up with the printing of the labels in Miami for local 769. Some how and still unclear on how it happened, the labels were printed and sent out to Washington DC. Washington after a few days discovered the labels were incorrectly printed and requested another run be started with the labels.

Local 769's ballots were reprinted and overnighted to Washington DC. They were stuffed and mailed over 1 week later then all other locals.
This delay gave a really short time, almost insufficient return time for 769's members.

As keeping with Teamster tradition none of these events were released to the members. There was no heads-up given so members knew what was going on. There has been no formal apology from the local and no attempt made to accept blame by the local leaders.

I received my ballot on the 21st. The count in Washington was to take place on the 30th. This allowed for just 6 days for my ballot to reach Washington if I mailed it out the next day.

As I stated before and bring up again there is a real need to overhaul the voting procedures. I asked my local rep. Steve Greenwell
about where I could get information about the voting procedures so I could review them. I was told "There aren't any!" I could not believe that the FREAKING International Brotherhood of Teamsters a union that has been around for over 100 years doesn't have a procedure in writing for voting.

Well this is just a load of crap.

I will be spending so time organizing and doing what ever I can to petition some sort of bylaws/procedures so that the Continental Airline Mechanics and supported crafts have something in stone the next time around. This to me seems to be completely FUBAR.

I will be contacting the Airline division and local 769 members as well as 769 reps. We will form a committee and hopefully join up with other locals draft a procedure and submit it to the members for a simple ballot vote. This will then be the procedures for voting and will have to be followed by the union. The members, union and all other affected parties will know without a shadow of a dought how the voting process will work.

I would appreciate any input other CAL members have on this situation and look forward to hearing ideas on how WE can make OUR union the BEST in the industry
_________________

Aviator · Joined: Nov 05, 2002 Posts: 37 Location: USA

I think our biggest problem in local 769, is there seems to be a distinct lack of solidarity in the membership. Granted, the voting was once again screwed up, and not even so much as an apology or an explanation from the union that I've seen. But even without that screw up, I have found a distinct seperation in views between the "Old Hands" and the "New Hires". There seems to be two schools of thought on almost every issue that we supposedly voted on. The people with the higher seniority were saying stuff like hell no, don't give em nothing back, and they were comfortable with saying that because there is sufficient cusion beneath them to cover any type of workforce reduction. The newer employees are understandably torn between wanting to do right by the senior guys, and the desire to provide for their families. Anyone can understand a younger persons need to try to put down roots and provide the stability needed to raise a family. However the "Old Hands" don't seem to really take the newer people plights into consideration, rather, when the subject of voitin on such things as consessions they spout off about how tough it was in the old days, and how they are tired of Conitnental taking advantage of everyonewithout taking everything account .
_________________
Never let the 9 year old inside of you die!

		Search
	The Online Community for Aircraft Mechanics!