Observations #18
May 2002

STOP COMPLAINING & VOTE

I’ve been looking forward to our Executive Board elections since we elected Thomasine Parrott VP and Ann German Recording Secretary. Their double defeat of a seasoned Good Ole Boy (GOB) delivered the message to the remaining GOBs that their positions are also vulnerable.

I believe my first National Observations letter, “Clingers and Appointees,” and Parrott’s 753-member petition about Charley Alfred’s abuse of nepotism and favoritism, both in the Truck Plant and especially at the Allison Transmission Plant are responsible for the changes in our Executive Board.

The petition was mailed in May of 2000, my letter was mailed in July of 2000, and the International’s Reps were in the plant in August of 2000. Instead of questioning any of the petitioners or myself about Alfred’s abuse of nepotism and favoritism, the International’s Reps promoted Alfred to Baltimore Regional Rep to help relieve the tension that was building between us and Alfred over his appointments.

The International did us a favor when they promoted Alfred, because when Lee Dorsey moved up to president, the election of Parrott and German was a signal that we, the membership, are ready for a change.

During the September 2000 union meeting, Dorsey’s first one as president, he was given an opportunity to do right by the membership when Parrott submitted two proposals; one to post all appointed positions, and the other one was to prohibit the appointment of family members.

However, Dorsey and his Gobs ruled that one was unconstitutional, and the other one was put through a meat grinder until it was no longer recognizable. When Parrott repeatedly questioned the Gobs decisions, a Gob supporter yelled, “Why don’t you sit down and shut up?” When the belligerent member wasn’t told he was out of order, you knew Dorsey was going to pick up right where Alfred left off. Our Union meetings are not for membership participation.

Railroading the membership over the appointment issue is how Dorsey’s presidency began. Instead of cutting the strings to Alfred and making his own mark on this local, he allowed Alfred and Chuck Miller to manipulate and control him like a puppet so they could continue to dominate and manipulate our union meetings and the membership.

Since Dorsey assumed the presidency, he not only railroaded us, he allowed many of our union meetings to be hijacked by Alfred, who was sitting in the middle of the Hall with a shit-eating grin on his face. It was Alfred’s appointed Gobs who were making all the motions to dispense with the roll call and the reading of the minutes. Because of the Gobs hijacking tactics, it was almost a year after the Recording Secretary was elected that she was finally able to read a report.

A year later, Miller and the GOBs ambushed me at the September 2001 union meeting over a bogus letter titled, “Bonuses from Solidarity House.” When I tried to defend my letter, I was confronted by an irate soccer crowd, and one Gob, Paul Hagert, kicked over his chair and yelled “F*%# you Doug, F*%# you Doug, F*%# you Doug.” Again, Dorsey didn’t tell the crowd or the foul-mouthed alternate that they were out of order. Membership participation was denied again.

The Tuesday following the December 2001 union meeting, I met with Dorsey at the Hall about an appointed Gobs threats. Not trusting Dorsey to meet me one on one, Jim Basilone insisted he be present. Whatever, I know I’m wasting my time with these Gobs, but I’m just covering the basses.

Dorsey said, “You have to expect threats when you write lies about people.” I’m not about to argue with him because I know he knows I wrote the truth about Alfred’s Boy Darrin Petty, who is moving up the UAW and AFL-CIO’s ladder without ever being elected by the membership. Anyway, Basilone changed the subject to Yokich appointing VP Gettelfinger as his replacement for President of the UAW. He was upset VP Shoemaker wasn’t going to be the next President-Select.

I told him it doesn’t matter who Yokich selected, because all the VP’s are Traitors. They’re selling us out all over the country, look at Caterpillar, Flint, Accuride and these damn Living Agreements. Basilone seems to think that the current rigid one party communist Dictators that we have in the UAW is the way it should be. To him the membership doesn’t need one member/one vote, because Delegates like him know what’s best for us.

I wonder if Basilone will tell Yokich, Gettelfinger and Shoemaker how he really feels when he meets them at the 33rd Constitutional Convention. Somehow I doubt it, he’ll be a Gob and suck up to all of them Traitors, and hope that maybe they’ll give him an International appointment after he cast his vote for Gettelfinger for President.

Our Local’s Executive Board is a Dynasty that goes back at least 15 years. All most all of the Gobs, including most of the Executive Committee members, and the majority of the 42 appointees on the Executive Committees and in the UAW-GM Joint Programs are family members or friends of the Dorsey, Alfred and Trump Dynasties.

Dorsey talked about Solidarity at the April 21st Union meeting. The only Solidarity I see is that the Gobs are solidly united in their efforts to take care of family and friends while repeatedly ignoring the needs of the membership. Line jobs aren’t good enough for the Gobs family and friends. Nepotism and favoritism are still the norm under Dorsey.

Before you Vote in the upcoming Executive Board Elections, think about why you don’t attend union meetings. I’ve heard countless stories, and from my own experiences, I know why.

The belligerent Gob, and the foul-mouthed Gob are part of the act. They’re allowed to get away with their antics because the Gobs want you to get frustrated and embarrassed, and never speak up, or come to a union meeting again. And their tactics work, because less than 10% of the membership attends union meetings. And out of that 10%, the majority are Gobs, their supporters and appointees who have to be there or they lose their appointments. So in reality, only 3% of the membership attends, no wonder they control the show.

If all the above isn’t enough to make you want to vote out the Dynasty, how about what the Gobs have done to our work environment? Some of the examples above and below are from my own experiences. Although I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. For instance, we’re overworked and working faster than ever.

Workloads aren’t evenly distributed and error time wasn’t factored into many of our jobs. If you stop to get a drink of water, a piece of candy, or circle a job on the pride sheet, you have to hustle for the next 5 jobs or more to catch up.

The committeeperson won’t let you write a 78 on your job, and if they do, you’re required to do the job for weeks or months while they drag their feet doing a time study. And if you call a committeeperson, 9 out of 10 times they’ll talk to your supervisor first.

The union and management double-team you. For instance, in September of 2000, I was warned by what’s his name in Labor Relations, “If you miss another item, you will be disciplined.” I missed an item. My supervisor walked me to the disciplinary hearing. Where was my committeeperson? I get to the hearing and he’s sitting back chewing the fat with the area manager. I knew I was about to be burned.

For the first time in my 25-year career, I was put on the street for the remainder of the shift plus a day. My committee-person told me I would be paid for the lost time, but that’s not the point. They double-teamed me, expecting me to be a good boy and do my job when I returned to work. I continued to miss the item until they finally took it off the job.

Seniority doesn’t mean squat. When we lost second shift, two coworkers and I were bumped out of paint, while three lower seniority members were put in the job bank just long enough to justify putting them back on our jobs. The committee-person said it was a legal move, more union and management double-teaming.

I hired a Lawyer outside the influence of the Gobs for my workers comp case, because I believed the Gobs Law firm, Schlachman, Belski & Weiner were biased and workers comp was a charade. I was right; GM just settled my case for $4,420.08, with little out of pocket expense. My Lawyer, John Costello is available at 410-823-2922.

Election results are questionable. I’ll explain why, and what, if anything, we can do about it in Observations # 19.

All classifications were eliminated. And an accident is just waiting to happen with the combining of Skill Trades.

Last but not least, and the only reason I need to bring the Gob’s Dynasty to an end is the fact that all of the above is because Alfred and the Gobs sold us out for that damn pro-corporate anti-union anti-membership “Non-Expiring Living Agreement” that they can change without our input or approval.

Alfred and the Gobs gave away the farm for the “ Agreement,” and now we’ve got nothing to bargain with for a new product. So don’t be fooled into believing that the Gobs and their harmonious relationship with management will help us secure a new product for the Truck Plant, it’s a load of bull. There is nothing that the Gobs can do for us.

Detroit has already decided our future, whatever that may be. So damn the future of the Truck Plant, or in spite of it, it’s time we pay them back for selling us out, and for trashing our pride, dignity and self-respect. The Gobs disrupted our work environment with the “Agreement,” now it’s our turn to disrupt theirs with our vote.

With Executive Board elections looming, the Gobs are playing musical chairs. Miller and Alfred must have bitch slapped the hell out of Dorsey and humiliated him into running for VP, so Miller can run for President. Their plan is to oust Parrott, whom they’ve never accepted, because she refuses to sell out. She is the only Executive Board member who doesn’t have an appointed position and the first Vice President in three decades who is forced to work on the line. The Gobs have lost control of our Local and everybody knows it, but them.

The Gobs Dynasty has outlived its usefulness. Deliver the final message to Miller, Dorsey and Basilone. Since they don’t want to cut the ties to Alfred, we should do it for them by voting for all Independent Candidates. Even if you have negative feelings about some of the Independent Candidates, you must have 10 times that for the Gobs. Do you really want to continue the Dynasty and their sell-out policies for another 3 years?

The Gobs maintain a list of retirees who vote for everyone on the Leadership Ticket every time, with no questions asked. To defeat the Gobs, every member must vote, and we need to inform everyone on sick leave and all the retirees to vote for the Independent Candidates. If all the retirees knew we had a contract/agreement that doesn’t expire, they would help us take our union back by voting to send Miller, Dorsey and Basilone packing.

Start by calling all the retirees you know as soon as possible and tell them about all of the above, and have them call their retired friends. Many of the retirees won’t know what your talking about when you tell them we have a Non Expiring Living Agreement, so tell them we have a Contract that doesn’t expire and it can be changed without our permission. That should motivate them to help us dump the Gobs and take our union back.

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In Solidarity,
Doug Hanscom
DisgruntedMember@aol.com