To the bargaining staff of FCI Herlong, I am addressing you today for a number of reasons: staff moral and comradery, our workplace environment and our Union local, its representatives and practices. I have met so many great people here in Herlong. I could not be any happier with my decision to transfer up here from Victorville last year. I am not exactly sure what happened here with the Union before I arrived to cause such disdain, so I can only comment on what I have heard and experienced since working here. Here are few things that concern me and should concern you as well: • Allegations of misrepresentation and/or no representation from the union. • Poor communication with the staff and management. • Misuse of Union time. • Allegations of misappropriation of funds. (Spending union money on non union items). • Dividing staff, allegations of taking on grievances only in the best interest of custody staff or the union. • Making poor decisions in the best interest of the union board and not in the best interest of its members and other bargaining staff. One example, presently your union president, executive vice president, treasurer and a fellow member are in Florida to attend the National Convention of 2013, they are spending valuable money which we do not have much of, vacationing in Florida. This raises so many questions: 1. Why did four people need to go? 2. How much was spent? 3. What was it spent on? 4. Where are the receipts? You do not have to attend the National Council to vote, you can do this via absentee ballot or via proxy. This money they are spending to send so many people is extremely valuable to the bargaining staff for items such as legal counsel for a fellow staff members or arbitrations. With the little amount that we have since participation in the union is minimal, you would think that rather than attending they would look at other options to save rather than spend. There are people here at FCI Herlong including myself that are willing to take on leadership roles and assist in getting this union back on track to being a productive entity that it can be. We don’t have five e-board members we have three and out of those three not one of them was elected to the position in which they fill. We need change, and we need participation to obtain this change we need you! I am asking if not begging for you to assist me in transforming this union and what it represents into something that we can all be proud of. Together we can increase the moral and comradery within this institution and hopefully create better relations with management and fellow staff. We need membership to increase so that we as a whole can regain the emergency funds to support staff, to make our voice louder and heard just as we have shown our non support in the past; we need to refocus that same energy on our future. I am finalizing the creation of two petitions one to AFGE and one to the Department of Labor addressing our concerns and demanding action be taken and the appropriate people be held accountable. Please show your support for change and stop by and sign by your name assisting in taking aback our rights. You DO NOT have to be dues paying member just a bargaining employee. Date and time to be announced shortly. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. It is up to us to make this happen. Seth Thomas Senior Officer Specialist
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:52:20 +0000
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