President Hunt's Bold Action

On Sunday November 13^th, 2011 at about 3:10pm I was attending my local union charter meeting. After I had signed in to the meeting, paid 25 cents for a raffle ticket, stood for a moment of silence for our lost Brothers and Sisters our local union President Jonathan Hunt called my name asking me to step in front of 40 – 60 members so that he could search me for recording devices. At that moment I felt that he had just singled me out and was attempting to publicly harass me in front of the membership. I felt this action he was requesting was in violation of my civil rights and uncalled for so I refused. President Jonathan Hunt then advised Sandra Guengerich (a female) that she is now the sergeant at arms and that she was to remove me from the room and search me. I left the room with Sandra with no incident. Outside of the room Sandra advised me that she did not feel comfortable with the instruction she had be requested to do and I advised her that I did not feel comfortable allowing a member of the opposite sex being instructed to search me in private.

I contacted a friend that is an attorney and was advised to allow the action to take place and seek legal advice upon the first opportunity. I returned to Sandra and approved of her to search me and President Hunt then stated that I was not permitted to return to the meeting and I will not be permitted to attend future meetings until he has had a meeting with me and my attorney. I left the building with no incident. Members at that meeting reported to me that statements had been made that I was singled out because Hunt caught me recording meetings and that I released information on the internet that jeopardized contract negotiations.

The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA)

TITLE I -- BILL OF RIGHTS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

(29 U.S.C. 411)

(5) SAFEGUARDS AGAINST IMPROPER DISCIPLINARY ACTION.-- No member of any labor organization may be fined, suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined except for nonpayment of dues by such organization or by any officer thereof unless such member has been (A) served with written specific charges; (B) given a reasonable time to prepare his defense; (C) afforded a full and fair hearing.

I have never received written specific charges, never given reasonable time to prepare a defense or afforded a full and fair hearing before this disciplinary action took place. President Jonathan Hunt took it upon himself to act as Judge, Jury and Disciplinarian. As I was leaving the building a member asked if this could be voted on and President Hunt did not allow any vote to take place.

In front of 40 – 60 members President Jonathan Hunt has:

·         Singled one member out and asked that member to perform a task of being inspected in front of the membership. It is not known if this was intended to demonstrate his concern for the security of the membership or to use the individual as an example to the membership and publicly humiliate that member in front of the membership.

·         Appointed a member of the opposite sex as a sergeant at arms and instructed the member to remove the other member and search that member in private. This type of instruction is demeaning to both members involved.

·         Denied re-entry and stated that the member will not be permitted back until a meeting with that member and the members’ attorney is conducted with him.

·         Stated to the membership that the member has recorded past meetings and have posted information from the meetings that have caused damage to contract negotiations.

·         Performed these acts without supporting documentation, due process or proper investigation.

·         Discredited a member in good standings and continues to receive union dues from that member.

The actions from ATU757 Union President Jonathan Hunt are very bold and have presented me with very little choice. The damage he has caused is unexplainable and cannot be left unanswered. I am not clear of the cost to myself or the membership for the actions. It is clear that someone does need to answer for this and at this time I will take all legal action necessary to assure that not just my rights are being protected but the civil rights of all my Brothers and Sisters. It is our membership dues that support the elected officers and there are appropriate ways to address issues with in our membership.

An Interactive Officer Survey Can Be Accessed By ATU757 Members

atu757.info site is starting to take shape. Last week at our local charter meeting there was some talk about creating surveys and using the information to help improve our union. I have heard this talked about a few times before and never learned of the out comes of any surveys. I fugred a survey would be a create tool for the communication website I am working on so with the help of my Nephew we developed an interactive survey of Officer that can be submitted by members. Not only can a member submit a survey on each officer they can also see the results right after the survey has been submitted. This is on a secure site and only ATU757 members are permited access. Before a member is able to view or submit surveys they must register first at http://www.atu757.info and once the email has been confirmed and the member has been reconized as a member they will have access to the survey.
If you have any question or comments about my site please feel free to contact me. I will work at getting more information about this as soon as I can. I am still working some bugs out of the system and getting all the detail work done. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Questions About Union Picnic Prize Fund

On August 28^th, 2011 ATU757 had our annual picnic. Over $20,000.00 in gift items had been purchased from Costco to give as prizes. Costco has confirmed that ATU757 does not have a membership to buy items at their store. The prizes had been bought using a Costco card under the company name of Hunt Court Yard. 

Questions:

1.       How come ATU757 does not have a Costco Card and why wasn’t it used to increase possible prize items?

2.       What type of membership does Hunt Court Yard have and was any funds converted due to these items bought?

3.       Is this a violation of Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959?

http://www.atu757.info/CostcoUse.pdf

Campaigning Reality Check

I am getting word back from people saying how crazy I am to think that it would cost $20k - $30k to run a successful campaign. According to our 2010 LM2 report we have a total of 4,383 members. To run a successful campaign you need to get some type of word out to all of these members (if you are running for President, Vice President or Secretary). Because the properties are so spread out the easiest answer is to mail them something. So let’s look at that:

Stamps                                 $0.44each            X 4,383 members             $1941.67

That is only for the stamps. It does not include paper, ink, envelopes or access to the mailing list. All candidates have only one company that they are able to do this type of work for them and I do not see a candidate for President, Vice President or Secretary being able to spend less than $1 per member. To be closer on the real side you should at least expect to pay close to $2 to $3 per member just on one mailing. This will bring the actual cost for one mailing around $8,766.00 to $13,149.00 and this is only for a one time shot and does not include any other activity the candidate might do. The time, gas, travel expense, food and so much more is all a part of campaigning.

ATU757 August Meeting Minutes 2011

For all ATU members!
Here is the minutes of ATU757's August 2011 Charter meeting. Feel free to comment on this post as it is an open outside meeting from our union.
http://www.atu757.info/Minutes/20110814

Who is the fool here?

To warn you in advance, this will be a very long post.

On August 14^th, 2011 I attended a Union meeting and left that meeting asking myself questions like:

Who is the fool here?
What or who can we believe now days?
Does our Union Constitution mean anything?

For the past few years I have shown a very strong passion towards my Union and my Employer. With this passion I have questioned the authority of both the Union to which I belong and the Employer that employees me. In doing so there has been very strong resistance from both. In communications with fellow members it appears that the membership feels frustrated and helpless. Members express fear of retaliation from both our Union and our Employer. This fear has also extended out towards fellow members fearing other members. Each one of us has our own views, passions and ideas about how our lives should be. Is living in fear the way of life you want to be a custom to?

UPDATE 08/12/2011:

The intention to “Prefer Charges” towards President Jonathan Hunt has been based off of communications and documents between him and me in reference towards the delivery of documents to a member. There was a dead line of July 30^th, 2011 for the documents to be delivered to the member. It is not clear that this dead line had been met, yet it appears that the member has received the documents and the proceeding is moving forward.

Because the proceedings are moving forward and the member has the required documents as stated in our communications I find the intention of “Preferring Charges” towards President Jonathan Hunt Null Void and is not warranted. Though the delay is questionable the end result is the factor of dismissing the intention of “Preferring Charges”.