I said this months ago, but it is worth drawing your attention to. Local 7 President Ernie Duran has done a marvelous job preparing his membership to "fight" for a decent contract. He allowed members to come to negotiations en masse. He encouraged open and blunt dialogue on what was happening. He acted like a union should...allowing members to be the determining factor...not some backroom dealings with the boys.
Now as the time draws near, the international is speaking in glowing terms how the mediator has crafted a much improved offer from the initial pile of crap that was on the table. It's an old ruse, take a really bad offer and then make it just kinda bad, and everybody is supposed to wipe their brow and say thanks, nice job.
Sadly, horseshit is horseshit, even if the pile is smaller. What's worse is, the international controls the purse strings on the strike benefits. If i was a betting man, and i am, i would wager a dollar to a donut they will never sanction a strike. That means Ernie and company would have to go it alone.
The sad thing is, with the size of Ernie's local, he has been pumping somewhere around three million dollars a year into the Washington coffers. Imagine how that money could have been used at a local level.
Watch this one closely gang. If they cut Brother Duran's heart out, we may well see a guy who would be willing to fight back. I expect we will see more desertions by local union leadership who are left with contracts that ultimately destroy their benefit plans and anger both members and leaders alike.
more:
http://slaveway.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/965600035/m/3491042131
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