At a special meeting held October 21, the 400+ delegates approved a substitute motion to the original dues proposal approved by the Local 1000 Council at its September 9 meeting.  The substitute proposal by Local 1000 Vice Presidents Marc Bautista and Yvonne Walker simply delays the effective date of the dues increase by three months from the original April 2007 and tinkers with the dues cap.

In addition, Local 1000 President Jim Hard denied a request by delegate Alex Hernandez for a roll call vote.  Mr. Hernandez was then forced to make a motion for a roll call vote but a majority of the delegates rejected calling the roll to avoid having their own votes recorded.

“Many of these delegates spoke about the importance of leaders being on the forefront and educating delegates about the importance of the dues increase.  But when it came to having their personal vote recorded, want to keep their members in the dark.” fumed Joyce Thomas-Villaronga, a delegate and President of DLC 747.

To add insult to injury, hotel staff, acting on orders from the union's chief of staff, barred members from bringing protest signs into the meeting hall.  This infuriated some members who had been unable to communicate with their delegates and had hoped to get their attention during the meeting.

“It’s very  sad that our union, which had fought hard with the State for the right to communicate with our members at the worksite could turn around and deny our own members the same rights to communicate with their representatives.”, said Barbara Powers, a delegate and Chief Steward in DLC 769.

We’ve heard from members who are frustrated with the way this dues increase is being shoved down their throats and surely, the final approval of the proposal will certainly intensify this frustration.  Some have expressed a desire to drop their membership and worst, sign a petition to rescind fair share fees.

Our message?  Don’t Quit!   Fight Back and help us reform the Union.

Discontinuing your membership simply turns you into a fair share fee payer.  As a fair share fee payer, the law still requires you to pay a fee that would be just a few dollar less than full membership dues.  However, you lose a very important right that members enjoy – the right to elect or unelect your officers and representatives.

If you are currently a fair share fee payer – become a member today.  This would actually send a more powerful message to Hard and Hackett.  Hundreds of new members will mean hundreds of extra voters they would have to answer to in the next election.

NOTE:

This is an excerpt from the original article published on October 23, 2006.  Portions of the original article that involved an appeal to members to take certain actions have been removed because the events have already concluded.