Whoa! at the risk of repeating myself...
We know it's not ethical .. but is that legal? 
Double Shot of Nepotism
quote:
nep·o·tism n.
Favoritism shown or patronage granted to relatives, as in business.
UFCW officials must truly have a special place in their hearts for members of Vancouver-based Local 777. A few years back, local officials signed a secret contract for them and not long after that, they bought an office building with their training and education fund. Now Local 777 members are the recipients of something really special from the National Office. According to an announcement posted on www.ufcw.ca, Anny Kukovica-Goodman (daughter of former UFCW Canadian Director, Tom Kukovica) and new hubby Dan Goodman are winging their way from the National Office in Toronto to new jobs at Local 777, where Anny will occupy a support staff job and Danny will be Executive Assistant to the President. MFD wonders how the Kukovica-Goodman's came by their new jobs - was there an open and objective recruiting process or were the jobs created just for them? We hope it's not the latter - that wouldn't be fair, not to mention that the recent merger of Local 777 and Local 2000 was supposed to reduce operating costs. And while we're asking questions, who's footing the bill for Anny and Danny's moving expenses from Ontario? Surely not UFCW members?!
[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: news ]
Congrats Danny boy! Heh, there's this Country song by Kenny Chestney off his "all I need to know" album that I think is perfect for you. I sure hope Kenny doesn't mind me posting the lirics and maybe Sleky can put up the actual song so we all can enjoy it. Here goes....
]Someone Else's hog........by Kenny Chestney
quote:
Well I've got a little girl and she's got a daddy,
who's got a lot of money and it makes me happy
to follow them around like a little whipped puppy dog.
Well she's my honey but he's my sugar dad
this country boy ain't doing to bad
livin high on someone else's hogChorus
Well I'm a livin' high on someone else's hog
I sit around all day like a 24 carat bump on a golden log.
Well I traded that rusty old GMC
got a long black Cadilac limousine
and I'm a livin' high on someone else's hog.Well this redneck boy from a blue collar town
really moved up since he got tied down
I got a brand new life and I owe it to my daddy in law.
Cause he gave me a so called executive position
now I get up early everyday and go fishin'
I'm a livin' high on someone else's hogrepeat Chorus
Inst.
repeat ChorusYeah I traded that rusty old GMC
got a long black Cadilac limousine
and I'm a livin' high on someone else's hog.
You go big D.
[ 10-13-2001: Message edited by: Scott Mcpherson ]
That's hysterical Scott. And so fitting. Gee, I could even develop a fondness for C&W. I think given the subject matter, it also has gangsta rap potential. 
quote:
Originally posted by siggy:
We know it's not ethical .. but is that legal?
There's nothing illegal about it but just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right, or a good practice. A lot of things have been "legal" at one time or another - some of them really terrible things.
There are a lot of problems with nepotism - a couple of which have already been mentioned:
1. Lack of fairness in filling jobs.
2. Waste of money if the jobs are not really necessary and have been created to accommodate the lifestyle choices of family members of the ruling elite.
3. Impact on morale of other staff (and in the case of unions - of the members). Why bother working hard when jobs are awarded on the basis of who you're related to?
4. Difficulty dealing with poor work performance. If the boss's relatives screw up, who's going to do anything about it?
5. Problems caused by poor work performance. It's hard to tell the boss's relatives they're doing a lousy job so problems caused by poor work performance don't get addressed and continue. Other staff (and, in the case of a union, the members), bear the brunt but have to put up and shut up.
A lot of organizations have policies that deal with nepotism - for all of these reasons.
It's really remarkable that given all the flack the UFCW has been taking, they still go ahead and do this - and put it on their front page! I suppose this is their culture. They don't know any other way to be.
Lack of fairness is right. Suzanne Hodge has been the senior business agent at 777 for close to seven years. Why didn't she get the job? Oops! Sorry, I forgot, she's a woman.
This is a prime example of how women are treated by the boys at the top. These guys just don't get it.
quote:
Originally posted by remote viewer:
There are a lot of problems with nepotism - a couple of which have already been mentioned:4. Difficulty dealing with poor work performance. If the boss's relatives screw up, who's going to do anything about it?
5. Problems caused by poor work performance. It's hard to tell the boss's relatives they're doing a lousy job so problems caused by poor work performance don't get addressed and continue. Other staff (and, in the case of a union, the members), bear the brunt but have to put up and shut up.
Ya know this is a bigger problem than people might think. When I was at IGA they asked me to play assistant manager a couple nights a week. Trained me to do lock up, close the store, count the cash etc. On those nights I was supposed to be in charge and responcible for the store.
However, the boss's daughter had other ideas. As head cashier she figured she called the shots and all I seen was that if things went wrong, I was responcible, otherwise she was running the show. It was hurting my department to do this and the boss made it clear who he was backing if things went wrong so I told them I was happy just to remain the Produce manager and leave at 4:30 every day.
Business is business, friends and family should never factor into the equation. I once terminated a close friend who tried to test me on that theory. The UFCW is ripe with people there only because daddy or mommy got them in. They didn't hire the best people, they took care of their own and that's just bad business.
While we're on the subject of nepotism, what's the deal with Alice Deletsay and UFCW Local 120B? We know she's Jack Allard's wife, so how did she come to be the President of the tinyest Local in Canada? Did Alice retire with Jack? Is that local going to be merged with Local 1518? It operates out of the 1518 offices, so I'd guess it would merge with Local 1518.
Hey, if Alice is going to retire, maybe Anny Kukovica could become the new Local 120B president, and Danny Goodman could be her assistant.
What is it that Executive Assistants do in union locals anyway? I know that in the business world, an EA is like an executive secretary but with more administrative responsibilities. In government, EA's are more like shit-stoppers for very important officials - their job is to shield the high and mighty from the public. What do union EA's do? Really.
lunch!
My guess is that when the President want's to blow a member off but doesn't want other members to know, he gets his Executive Assistant to do it for him. All the crap jobs he doesn't want to do he give to the E.A. Executive Assistant sounds better than goffer boy or patsy.
I was told that the gopher of gophers used to drive Evans car to Florida so Evans could fly.
I was told that another gopher was put in the job to pump up his pension.
I think other gophers are paid just so the "president" looks important. "I'll have my gopher call your gopher they can set up a round of golf for me and you."
Gophers are also good as lookouts. The president never has to report for work again unless the gopher phones and says, "incomming members!" Gophers are the ones who lie about where the president really is and what he is really doing.
quote:
Originally posted by Troll:
[QB]I was told that the gopher of gophers used to drive Evans car to Florida so Evans could fly.I was told that another gopher was put in the job to pump up his pension.
QB]
That's just awful! I'm serious. Why didn't Evans just rent a car? Oh, stupid question but it would be good to know the answer.
And what kind of dollars do gophers pull in for car jockeying and other important functions?
Hey, that ain't nothin'! One gopher flew all the way to Calgary from Toronto basically to install the latest upgrade for WordPerfect. I'm sure the disks must have been in a briefcase handcuffed to the gopher. High priority mission, y'know.
$2,000 for the plane and a couple of hundred for hotel and the fantastic perdeim. Yup, gophers perform much needed and valu-added functions.
So how many happy gophers would there be and what do they get paid?
[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: remote viewer ]
Ya!! How many gophers does it take to screw in the presidential lightbulb??
And how much of the Power Sourcers money is wasted keeping rodents. 
[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: siggy ]
The other appropriate Question?
How did they get into the presidential lightbulb?
You know this whole thing really ticks me off.
I can name 11 people in my workplace in crisis at this moment.
All the way from people on stress leave (with no benefits) because trying to juggle 2 jobs and a family was just too much. (Now their dilemma is greater)
To.. people who left with injuries who need income and return to work injured because the paperwork/appeals/ takes too long and are too confusing.
To a person who has written to the employer asking to change their schedule. This person would like the shifts to be in the same five day period as the other job and school because they feel they do not have time to recover after working and schooling 7 days a week.
And then I come here and read about the rodents gnawing at their expense.
It isreally disgusting. What you've described is so commonplace among workers in the service industry as well. It's just staggering when you think of how much money is being pissed away helping the friends of the high and mighty live high on the hog.
This is one (of many) reasons why I think that union members should be free to change unions without a lot of hassle and guilt-tripping from the mainstream labour hacks. There is no way to control the kind of waste and excess that we've been discussing. The leaders of these biz unions are unaccountable to anyone and do whatever they please. The members are in no position to stop them. The only way you can possibly stop this disgraceful troughing is to make it easy for the members to vote with their feet. If the labour country club won't condemn these excesses and do its share to keep the workers from being screwed by its own affiliates, then they should get the hell out of the way when the members say they've had enough.
Yes it is disgusting, and to think of the numbers of parasites living off the backs of those workers.
The Power Source is teeming with qualified people, but would the UFCW ever call them up from the ranks to work full-time in a union office or be the Local Union President's gopher? Nope, those jobs are patronage jobs. Members need not apply.
Right to work legislation that we see in the states could be another alternative because employers will back it with political muscle. Maybe you can't reform the union if your not a union member, but I say you can't reform the UFCW. It's a virus that needs to be quarantined and destroyed. Governments pass laws prohibiting companies from conspiring to "not compete" yet allow unoins to come up with this "no raiding" clause? Piss on them, right to work lets us walk one at a time if we want. The UFCW is giving everything away anyhow so I say lets cut out the middle man.
I have some difficulty with the concept of "right to work" as a means to dealing wiht bad representation. To begin with, it's not about right to work, it's about the right to no representation. It's legislation that helps business.
There are two dangers to going down this path that I think need to be considered:
1. That the a push for "right to work" legislation will shift the focus among union reformers from "right to good representation" to "right to no representation".
2. That it will lead to all kinds of employer manipulation aimed at convincing workers that the corporation truly does have a heart after all - which it doesn't.
I think that maybe there is another alternative - one that has been considered near impossible in the past. That is, that the crappy unions will be decertified and replaced with better unions - some of these may be existing unions but my guess is that we'll see some new organizations spring up that can actually take on the mega-biz-unions in their huge bargaining units and win.
Two things are necessary for this to happen: (1) There needs to be a viable alternative - a union or unions that are member-driven, creative and determined to get the best possible results for their members. (2) There needs to be a communications infrastructure that allows the viable alternative to engage in two-way communication with a large number of members, quickly, easily and at minimal cost.
The communications infrastructure already exists. All that is needed now is the viable alternative. With all this activity beginning on the part of the community of reformers, it's only a matter of time before we have the spark that starts it all. That's what's different today - the communications infrastructure exists. That makes a lot of previously impossible things possible - inevitably maybe.
I agree with Remote Viewer. Right to Work is not a concept that's conducive to productivity or fair labour practices. It is a concept that has no takers in Canada and few in the US. It's a concept that has only caught on in states which have an agriculture-based economy. Those states use it to attract industry with the promise of cheap tax breaks and cheap labour.
Low taxes mean low levels of government services. and Low wages mean the inability of the average worker to buy those services on the open market.
Nope, Right to Work is not the answer to cutting the cancer from corrupt unions.
Here's another double shot of nepotism, this time from UFCW Local 1000a.
If you go to the Staff Reps' page at http://www.ufcw1000a.org, you'll see that 1000a Secretary Treasurer Brian Docherty has his son Paul on board as a staff rep. You'll also notice James Gilbert who is billed as a computer whiz of some kind - he's the sonny of former 1000a Pres, Danny Gilbert. Danny retired and is now working as an Exec Ass at the National Orifice. There's also Kevin Benn, another 1000a staff rep. His old man, Frank, was a UFCW honcho of some kind. And I believe that Pearl McKay-Blake is hooked up with some UFCW dude.
Isn't this swell? Oh, I can hear the whole lot of them whining, "We hire based on merit, go away and leave us alone pesky reformers." I think this means that if you're related to the high and mighty, you
merit a nice job.
Let's do a nepotism list. Who else do we know that's riding on their papas' (or significant others') coattails?
Oh, I have one!
Wayne Hanley, UFCW Local 175 President. Son of Bill Hanley, former UFCW Local 175 President.
[ 10-25-2001: Message edited by: remote viewer ]
This kind of upward mobility goes against the very fabric of what our society was built on. They are deliberately creating a class society within the union. One based on social status and blood lines as opposed to merrit.
Nations were lead based on blood lines for centuries. Many good men died in battle because inept men inherited comand instead of earning it. Now union leaders are creating the same thing within the labour movement?
They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again expecting different results. These societies met their demise because this sort of upward mobility weekens nations just as it will unions. As employers continue to hire more and more quality people with sharpe minds, the unions elite continue to hire and promote from within their own families.
Common sence dictates that eventually the imbalance of talent will one day shift so decisively in favour of the employers, unions won't stand a chance. When that day comes many more good men will once again be led to slaughter. Only this time instead of the battle field it will be the board room.
Oh my God! Uncle Brookey is that you?
You remember, it's me siGGy!
Oh yes, the are the marrying kind. Cliff married his secretary Deb, and her sister works in a UFCW office. Tom Kukovica had is wife and daughter on board. Gord Plenderleith's daughter worked at head office. Let's not forget Mr. and Mrs. Lumsden. The both worked at head office until Wally needed a pension bump and was placed in Hanley Heaven. Then there's McAurther and son of the old RWDSU/UFCW clan. Mike Fraser??? You bet. If they can't get them a job in a Loblaws Companies store in highschool, they take them directly out of highschool into a cushy union job. Eugene Fraser??? He's a regular on UFCW controlled entities. I don't know, but Fraser and Fraser could very well equal relative if you ask me. Next time you run into Cliff, ask him.
Hey, after all, you could never trust the membership like you could trust family.
Cliff: how ya doin'
Mike: how ya doin'
Eugene: how ya doin'
insert name here: how ya doin'
Forget "pass the mustard" ...change it to "I'll have a bud"
Remote Viewer said:
quote:
That's just awful! I'm serious. Why didn't Evans just rent a car? Oh, stupid question but it would be good to know the answer.
The answer is simple. The visits to the Florida home weren't classified as union "business," so renting a car would have to come out of his own pocket. It's much cheaper to have the union Cadillac on hand for the trips to the Florida grocery store.
[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: weiser ]
Well doesn't that just figure. The mental image it conjures up speaks volumes about what's wrong with the biz-partner unions: Evans being chauffeured to Florida in a big Caddy on the members' dime (because he wasn't on union business). "Oh Jeeves, once more round the park, and step on it".
It's a good thing we have this alternative media web site now. We can talk about these things. That in itself should get people understanding these guys for what they really are (not real unionists) not to mention that it will discourage this kind of snoot-in-the-trough behaviour. They do it because they figure nobody will ever find out about it and they'll never have to worry about being embarrassed. Those days are over.