Open Letter to the TWU membership from Don Stang I have been a TWU activist for my whole career both in the FTW and the TWU. I was a Convention Delegate for Local 1 for 30 years, President of Local 1 for 25 years and a Business Agent just before I retired. I am retired now but I feel that I have a very large investment in the TWU and it is not just all about my pension. I am still a member in good standing of Local R55 and the TWU and that is why I am writing this. I have heard a lot from officers of the union about misinformation being circulated to the members by some members who are not necessarily in favour of the proposed merger with the USW. I too am concerned about misinformation and I think it should be addressed. None of the so called misinformation talked about by the officers has been pointed out or clarified in any of the statements I have read but I would like to point out what I consider to be misinformation from some of the current TWU Table Officers and offer some explanations as to why I feel these statements are misleading. The first one I read was in the last edition of the Transmitter and was in the message from the President and I quote: “What is evident is the clear majority of support for merging with the USW” and “While there has been strong support for the merger, some of our members continue to oppose the prospect.” I don’t know about anybody else but I do not consider 2766 positive votes out of 10,500 members eligible to vote a ringing endorsement of anything. I can’t speak for the 6200 members who did not vote but I can say that they were not strongly supporting the merger. In the TWU bulletin that announced the vote results the TWU President is quoted as saying: A solid majority of our members support the merger agreement.” I call this blatant misinformation; there is absolutely no evidence of this. The other example of misinformation is contained in the TWU Bulletin that announces that the Power Point Presentation is now available online. The TWU Secretary Treasurer states “The merger provides TWU members with immediate and full access to the $300 million USW Strike and Defense Fund” This statement definitely needs some clarification. So what does the Merger Agreement say? Under A. Strike/Lockout Assistance it says “The TWU members will, as of January 1, 2015 be fully entitled to distributions from the USW Strike and Defense Fund on the same basis as long-time USW members.” In the next paragraph it goes on to explain the distribution policy for the fund and I quote “$200 per member per week (after a three week waiting period) for distribution to its members as strike assistance.” Also it says: This amount, plus benefits from District and Area Council Strike Funds, is added to to the USW Local Union’s strike account.” Well, we don’t have District and area strike funds but right now we do have our Benevolent fund which is our strike/lockout fund. In 2005 When I looked after the Burrard area lockout zone which covered North Van., Vancouver, Richmond and Ladner we paid $300 per week to locked out members. In today’s dollars that would be probably $350 or a little more so to receive a similar amount today you would need to subsidize the USW Assistance with your own TWU fund. I would not say that this is what most people would think when they read “immediate and full access to the $300 million USW Strike and defence fund.” It is certainly not unfettered access and is not some magic solution that will remove any of the members concerns with bargaining on the horizon. So now you have been promised that there will be no changes to what you pay and to quote the Secretary Treasurer in the power point “you will get more for what you pay.” Now think about this: you will be paying the USW $18.3 million dollars during the next five year transition period on top of maintaining your strike/lockout fund and all the other services you have now but you get more for what you pay. I don’t see it and I would stop looking at the rhetoric form the TWU and start reading the agreement if I had a vote. In Solidarity Don Stang Former TWU Business Agent Former President Local 1 (25 years) Current Member R55
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 02:32:00 +0000
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