Talk is Cheap!
quote:
Reform and democratization is not a game that union bureaucrats want to play _at all_. Empowering the members is not high on their agenda
Exactly!!! and that is what this forum is here for, to empower, member by member.
And one way to empower is to discuss EVERYTHING.
We must openly question the old guard and the old rules .
We need to examine all the rules, discover their intent and redesign those that don't work.
Holding on to the old "solidarity forever" ( tho admirable ) is not necessarily the way to go, as it seems to have turned against us.
Maybe all the old rules have outlived their usefulness?
Here's something inspiring that I came across recently that I think goes right to what you're talking about.
"...cultural behaviors and unspoken beliefs typically change long before people openly concede to each other that times have changed. Lip service is given for years - generations - to ideas long since privately abandoned. No one conspires against these old shells of belief...so they continue to have power and discourage innovators.
Long after an old paradigm has lost is value, it commands a kind of hypocritical allegiance. But if we have the courage to communicate our doubts and defection, to expose the incompleteness, the rickety structure, and the failures of the old paradigm, we can dismantle it. We don't have to wait for it to collapse on us".
For the longest time I used to wonder why all discussion about union reform seemed to be restricted to efforts at reforming existing unions (reinventing the "old guard") - when there are other options. This goes a long way to providing an answer. The old paradigm (the great big union, with a big jurisdication and lots of dues paying members) isn't working and we all know it. Look back on the last 20 - 30 years and you'll see the proof. The only thing that is getting in the way of finding a better alternative is that we are discouraged from talking about alternatives. So, there's nothing wrong with saying the old guard (and new improved varieties of it) isn't cutting it any more (rickety? incomplete? yeah, right!) The first step in finding an alternative is to talk about alternatives.
(The quote above is from a book called The Aquarian Conspiracy, by Marilyn Ferguson. Ferguson is commenting on a view expressed by Alexis de Tocqueville, in his classic work about democracy, Democracy in America).
[ 05-20-2001: Message edited by: remote viewer ]
[ 05-20-2001: Message edited by: remote viewer ]
Oh, but things they be-a-changin'! 
quote:
Canadian Director Michael Fraser told delegates "local unions in Canada are looking at innovative ways of servicing because the traditional ways of servicing are not getting the results that we need. I've always said the UFCW has more contact with rank and file members than any other union, 
yet members still say they want more communication, they want to see their union rep more.
Maybe seeing a UFCW rep is like seeing an angel. Some say that angels take different forms, sometimes, it's the bum on the street, sometimes it's a stray dog, sometimes it's the little old lady with the knowing twinkle in her eye.
Next time you walk by the rat by the dumpster, don't throw a brick at it, you might be frightening a Union Rep.
Well, "I've always said," it's 11:00 a.m. and, Mikey, you don't have a clue about where even one business agent is, unless he or she is with you. The Power Source don't complain about not seeing a business agent without reason. The fact is that hours are so low and schedules so erratic that most people never see a union rep.
Union reps work Monday to Friday, during the day. The Power Source works seven days a week anywhere from Midnight to 11:59 p.m.
Get a grip on reality Mike.
(Photo and Quotation courtesy of UFCW Local 832
[ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: weiser ]
I heard a good one today:
quote:
Solidarity doesn't mean you have to be stupid together.
I wonder if the CLC could ever wrap their collective brains around that one?
Hey I noticed that one of the guest speakers at the great convention was none other than former Ontario Premier, Bob Rae. Now here's a guy who doesn't get invited to many union functions.
Bob is most famous for suspending collective bargaining in the Ontario public sector, an act that many believe drove a big wedge down the middle of Ontario's labour movement (the biz-unions supported him while the social unions never forgave him for it). He was such a major let-down that the NDP was obliterated in the 1995 provincial election and hasn't been heard from since. Bob now works for a big Bay Street law firm, representing biz-guys.
Who would believe that a union would invite this loser to speak at its convention.
Brother Doug spoke to the usual group:
quote:
Most of the delegates attending the Solidarity Conference were executive and staff of UFCW local unions. President Dority's message to them was simple and blunt. "Change or get out of the way.
If it's really "change or get out of the way," they could start by making sure mainly Power-Source elected people go to these things. The Power Source is excluded entirely from union governance events. Only the machine heads and specially-chosen machine-head wannabes get to go.
"Change or get out of the way"
A scorpion came upon a river it needed to cross. He couldn't swim and would certainly drown on his own. It was then he seen a frog by the shore and he asked the frog if he could ride accross the river on the frogs back.
The frog wanted nothing to do with the scorpion. "NO, if I carry on my back you will sting me and I will die the frog replied. The scorpion understood the frogs fear and reasoned that he could not swim. If he were to kill the frog we too would die with him. This made sence to the frog so he then took the scorpion on his back and started making his way accross the river.
Half way accross the river the frog felt the deadly sting of the scorpion's tail and cried "why? you have just killed us both! why would you do such a thing?" the scorpion replied "because I'm a scorpion".
"Change, or get out of the way"
Political rhetoric Doug, nothing more. The UFCW can't change who and what it's become any more than the scorpion could resist it's natural instinct to kill it's prey.
