Continuing to Fight

Brothers and Sisters,

I truly wanted to give our new Business Manager every shot to make this Local better.  Matter of fact, I still do.  We can not sit back and allow our Business Manager or any other person in leadership roles run unchecked.  I have spoken out about the reasons I feel "Total Package Dues" is a reckless  way to acquire funding for our Local.  I have decided to get the word out on the internet for all to see.  Understand, there is some info that can not and should not be shared on the internet.  In lieu, I will always be available to correspond with our members.

A complicated question with a variety of answers.  I would like to say the question is similar to "do all restaurants need Ketchup?"  the obvious answer is "No", but if you owned a hamburger restaurant the answer is yes.   

We as a Local have saved over $20,000,000 over the last 10 years.  This is money in our Industry Advancement, which has come out of our checks at a rate higher than the dues in question. Maybe we should look at how we allocate the current 4.1%  currently taken out of hourly dues paying members take home pay.

I would love to entertain that.  Sitting on the budget committee for as long as our current Business Manager and only missing two meetings in which I was on the road as a Superintendent representing our Local I never quit advocating for educating our members, prior to asking for a dues increase.  Unfortunately, our Business manager does not consider us members able to comprehend complex ideas, so instead he shows misleading pictures. 

This is my most vocal point.  It comes in steps. First, we have to negotiate better.  We have not captured the rising cost of everything in our last several negotiations.  Can we fund our Local if we negotiate better? Yes! at just a 5% yearly increases, vs the 3.5% average we've been getting.  Our business Manager endorsed the contractors first offer, $0.90 less then what was passed or $108,000 less in potential dues. Why would you listen to a person who wants less for you?

Why should the burden of a dues increase only be carried on the shoulders of hourly dues paying members.  Plenty of our members who receive the same representation as you only pay a monthly amount of dues.  to some degree, hourly dues paying members pay more money for less representation.  I submitted a plan for our local to increase monthly dues as a stop gap measure for our local.  It affects everyone more fairly(as fair as timing allowed) and it comes with a natural sunset clause.  This allows for the members to have more control of how they are assessed versus the job being done to represent them. I'm sure our Business Manager is hard at work trying to discredit my proposal, but it being shot down leaves the membership with less options.  Members run this local and we must not forget that.

Greg Croarkin