Hope you’re enjoying your weekend, Rabble Rousers!
At the 21 September General Membership Meeting, we were all handed a lot of paperwork (which is why it took me two days to compile this email). Here it is! (50mb .zip file)
My takeaways:
- No union business was conducted. The meeting was largely informational, like our May meeting. For most of the time, we were covering the very same information as the May meeting- mostly stuff from the 2021 DC33 contract.
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President Dinkins and the Executive Board printed out our protests and our rebuttals- with more than enough copies for everyone. While I am quite possibly Dinkins’ most outspoken critic, I have to give him credit where it’s due: This was the absolutely correct thing to do. He invited members to review the documentation themselves. I invite you to do the same: I believe that if you read our protests, you will arrive at the conclusion that they are valid. He believes the opposite. This is the first time in all the years I’ve been a 696 member that the process has been so transparent, and so I’d like to thank President Dinkins and the Executive Board for making the information available to the members who attended.
- President Dinkins was going through the informational packet (in the download) when Former President Bobby Davis interrupted him to solicit donations for a worker who had recently suffered a personal tragedy (I’ve excluded the details to preserve the privacy of the worker). While the worker was clearly in need of aid, and I believe a labor union should do mutual aid, I can’t help but feel this was inappropriate and improper. Bobby Davis retired from the City in 2018, and stepped down as President of Local 696 in March of this year. He is not eligible for membership of Local 696, and he absolutely has no authority to interrupt the President of the Local, regardless of their personal relationship.
- There was a very brief mention of 2024 contract negotiations, but we didn’t have a real discussion on the subject. Our contract is up on 30 June 2024, and for negotiations that is very little time to prepare. We should be conducting polls and surveys to gather verifiable data on what the members want in our next contract. We should be going through trainings for strikes, pickets, and bracing the membership for multiple potential outcomes of the negotiating process. Casually mentioning it is not enough.
In general, my impression is the same as every other Local 696 meeting: Local 696 does not abide by Robert’s Rules of Order (abbreviated RONR), as is described in the Local 696 Constitution. This is a serious problem, because RONR is the process through which members can make motions, debate, and vote on union business. There are just enough motions and seconds that someone with only a passing knowledge of RONR may think things are in order, but that is sadly not the case here. The entire e-board should go through a training on RONR to improve their technique. This is not a condemnation of anyone’s character. RONR is complex and procedural, and doesn’t come intuitively. It needs to be taught!
When the membership is in session, Local 696 is much closer to a social club than it is to a Labor Union. Our membership is not prepared for contract negotiations in 2024, and that has me very worried.
That’s all for me today. As always, you may email me any questions!
In solidarity,
-J. Matthew Catron
Candidate for Business Agent
Agitator
Troublemaker
Rabble Rouser