When is the Junket to Ottawa happening?

[wimpole1]

Does anyone know when the 6 day convention is happening this year? It's called a bargaining convention. (Isn't that funny)?
It sure makes sense to be spending extravagantly when the rest of the company is under tight budget constraints. Anyone heard about the financials?
Is it true that some union leaders are taking legal action against other union leaders in the twu? Nothing would be surprising.

[paulg]

Well, I'm retired and don't get info anymore, but over on
the other site, there are threads about an increase in dues
and a one day assessemt. I suppose there is more coming
out sometime soon

---8-p

[NC]

Sorry for the absence, just been busy with work. Which, when self employed is a good thing!

Is there any mention on the TWU sites about dues increases? I have to keep the Calculator up to date.

[paulg]

There wouldnt be until it came to a vote or if passed at convention
This is a proposal, it has a ways to go. Like I said I'm not 'round those
part no more.

I just completed a 3 month contract, also doing a bit of volunteer work,
keeping busy.

[Mimi Williams]

Rumour (confirmed) is that there will be a resolution brought forward to increase dues from 1.7 to 2.1 percent of gross. Rumour (unconfirmed) that there will be a one time assessment of one day's pay brought forward. Both would require ratification of the membership. The former would require ratification of 66 2/3 of convention delegates prior to it going to the membership (as it would be a constitutional amendment). The latter would not and can be sent to the membership with either 66 2/3 of Executive Council or 66 2/3 of convention delegates supporting it.

Members might wish to note that if this dues increase goes through, it will amount to a 75% increase in dues since the lockout in 2005. (From 1.2 to 1.7 and then to 2.1).

I was confused about convention(s) also because there is not even mention of those dates on the TWU website, so I asked. I was told that there will be "regular" convention held in Gatineau, PQ from February 1 - 6 and then "bargaining" convention held in Kelowna from April 6 - 8 which would, presumably, have delegates flying into Kelowna on a stat.

[Mimi Williams]

I'm not sure if the dates of the "bargaining" and "regular" are mixed up in my post above. It's all very unclear to me, frankly.

[wimpole1]

This has been circulating amongst members. Maybe it is relevent, maybe not. It sure sounds credible. All members should be aware of this!!

"A Message to all Doubters from a Bellite

So you thought you were better than us. You said we screwed the membership over. You called us Bellites and treated us worse than scabs. You sent each and everyone packing with your bullying tactics, your accusations, your whisper campaigns. You said we were a bunch of bullies….but we have nothing on you. You put our picture on the internet but guess what? We have your caucus list (George, John, Betty, Laura, Lee, Chris (impartial chair or what?), Delores, Colin, Lance, Guy, etc – yes we’ve got the whole list. Expect to see that coming soon to an webpage near you.

You say – well that’s just politics. Fine. You’ve had a chance to prove your leadership now. Let’s see how you’ve done.

You spent all of 2006 and a lot of 2007 getting rid of Bruce Bell and anyone who supported him and cost the membership hundreds of thousands in legal fees not to mention forever blemishing the union’s reputation. What about all the grievance issues that weren’t looked after because of your focus on internal fighting? Are you going to come clean about that? You’ve lost any hope of winning back contracting out because you’ve left it so long untouched. And let’s not forget to mention your brilliant strategy of putting an Operator in charge of plant-craft contracting out and assigning a plant-craft person to clerical.

You systematically removed Peter, Karen, Tim, Nancy and everyone else remotely associated with Bell or even Hiebert. We can thank Hope ***** for all of that too. [NC edited out a last name]

Next - you fired Bell’s assistant and forced other staff to quit. (Kim ****** was suspended for 8 days and you made her life was a living hell and Anne-Marie simply couldn’t take it anymore). Eventually you bought out Sid *** because he was telling the truth about your vast incompetence. How much did that cost the membership? Our dues paid for his buyout.

You threw your support behind your fearless leader George **** who quit before the lockout and didn’t even bother to show up on the picket line. Hey George, you collected 6 months of wages from both the union and the company? Sounds like an honest guy to me….

You criticized us for not watching the money. But you set up a dummy corporation and weren’t even going to tell anyone about it. Just the table officers would have signing authority…. Nice Good thing someone finally woke up to that.

You swiped at us for spending money on having Nancy ******** in as an alternate because of the cost of travel, hotels etc but now you have George and Lee’s guy from Williams Lake in for a couple of extra thousand a month when there are in town alternates that wouldn’t cost anything extra. And you said we were too political….

We wanted to raise union dues. You said that was wrong. Now you’re coming to the membership to increase the dues to 2.1% and your spending is out of control. The TWU travel club is a nice club to join. John ********* has been all over the place with the points he has earned flying needlessly everywhere and for everything. Spending New Year’s Eve in New York on the member’s backs. Ivana ****** gets assigned a northern local in AB so she can be with her lover Dale on the members money Lee ******** gets to come and go as he pleases and does nothing for anyone but politic, politic…whisper and smear. And how about his royal behind? He likes his perks so much he threatened to put his boots to the officers that didn’t vote for a week long stay at Harrison. George took a 5-days trip home from the East by train as a little holiday. He’s so busy. Betty ****** has taught other BAs to go to the spa on union paid time just like she does. She pays lawyers to do her work – we say – just hire the lawyer and be done with it! How about Local 50 Laura threatening a delegate with ‘serious repercussions’ if she didn’t invite Betty to speak at a social event? Way to get your voice heard. Just like a little mafia.

What about Prince Rehel [NC is not sure what to edit here??] – who flew all the way home instead of attending to his work or going to EC because someone dared put him up at the Best Western instead of the Hilton. Well, you got what you deserved in him. He doesn’t show up for work and you keep on paying him. In fact, there are a lot of EC people who don’t show up for work and that’s why the table officers said they needed structural change and needed to be the boss.

Yeah, you guys are good employers too. You locked out your own staff in a move only Telus could admire – removing their grievance procedure and making the TWU a national embarrassment to the entire labour movement. Nice work.

You said we weren’t democratic enough. Really? Why the secret deal with the Steelworkers? Yes – you are SO open and transparent.

And, as we have predicted, you have starting eating your own. It started with Mimi Williams and John holding EC hostage and threatening to quit if they didn’t get rid of her. The list of people that guy has screwed over is incredible. Shelley Snape, Scott Slade, and others…..and he brags about it too. A real trade unionist.

Meanwhile Colin ******* is trying to remove Carol ******* as Pension Trustee because he’d like to go on the trips with Lee and George. This guy is so incompetent he couldn’t even write a legal petition and spent hundreds of thousands of your dollars on a public awareness campaign for signatures that are worthless! Not to mention the fact that the members didn’t even know it was happening until after the van left town. Speaking of – the whole idea was stolen from Tactical but George assigned it to Colin cause he couldn’t have Harmony Jackson get credit for anything while she was running against Ivana.

George also charged Harmony with harassment for a letter of concern her local wrote regarding the removal of Betty **** from her HRO post. These harassment complaints work pretty well for you don’t they George? You can keep people quiet while screwing them over completely. But what are you going to do about bargaining George? Can you charge the company with harassment if they come after the membership?

Now, Anderson writes a letter stating that she is worried about the money so you charge her with harassment and remove her from office and now you’re doing everything in your power to keep that quiet and keep it from convention. You cut off her email. You’ve even offered to pay her to shut up. Where is that money coming from? The member’s paychecks? And what about your spending habits? We heard you were a million dollars over budget and Tamara *********** nearly fell off her chair she was so surprised. Guess that’s what happens when you don’t know what you’re doing.

You even kicked Lila **** out. Not that we care but is that how someone who has had a stroke can expect to be treated after 30 years with the union? Stupendous! And lets talk about how you also charged her with harassment. Is there anyone you haven’t charged? Mmmm?

And you plan to lead bargaining? Good luck with that. You won’t even ASK for a raise for the Eastern folks because you’re so afraid to be at the table.

And you thought we were bad….

Proud to be a Bellite! "

It seem many many thing are going on that we are unaware of!!


*** editted by NC *** (Sorry guys, no last names)

[dolphin]

the convention is in Ottawa from feb 4 for 1 week. The logic of having back(last year) to back conventions in the east escapes me.

[alec]

There is enough credible stuff in that note to bring out the outrage in just about anyone.

And of course we will never know what the books reallyt look like.....

My lateral filing cabinet is bulging with granola bars and juice boxes and I have started collecting Haloween masks for crossing. I think I will go with cartoon characters as an 'homage to the TWU executive

[Mimi Williams]

I don't know about that week for convention, dolphin. The meeting calendar on the TWU website shows a number of locals holding meetings the week you cite. The source I had for the dates was pretty credible; I just wasn't sure if I misheard him and mixed up which came first, bargaining convention or regular convention.

[NC]

Whoa! that looks like some inside knowledge. You TWU'rs will hopefully know those first names. I would not like a person's full (Last Name) to Google to this sort of discussion about them. Those little Google spiders are fast and efficient.

Dues of 2.1% is out of the park!!!! I did that dues study for the Calculator and that is high! I mean, if you are getting representation and value sure but... the TWU?? If ever there has been an argument for *reduced* dues they are making it.

I am going to change the TWU dues calculator so we can see what that will result in for your dues cost. I will change it back later.

[NC]

Using the calculator (Set now to 2.1%) it now shows that if you make $20/hr you pay $80 a month in dues! With 10,000 members (Less than the estimated 14,000.) earning $20/hr that gives almost $10,000,000 a year to the TWU!!

WTF!!!

Can someone with more inside knowledge of average wage and number of members run something realistic through there and post the results?

calculators/calculator/calc/116

10 Million??!?! You guys should start an economy airline.

[green1]

The pay rates are in the contract, however it can be difficult to dig them out.

I suspect however that your $20/hr is on the low side (techs make over $30/hr)

I can't imagine any reason the union needs more than a few thousand a year to operate properly, let alone over 10 MILLION dollars a year!

[alec]

i am very happy that they have all that money so that they can appeal silly issues all the way to the supreme court.

[sammy]

Convention starts in Ottawa on Feb. 1st as most everyone is flying out this weekend. Its their annual convention, bargaining convention is later in the spring.