No matter how cynical you get, it’s hard to keep up...

The decert group sent out a mass e-mail this morning defending their communications and I found the following excerpt quite amusing:

It appears necessary to refute charges [against the decert team] levied by SPEEA recently... No lies have been told and each statement is carefully researched to verify accuracy.

I’d call their attention to their incorrect statements of “fact” like

• the retirement lawsuit lawyers are paid on contingency (they’re not)
  
• our dues-paying membership is only 275 WTPU employees (we number far more)
  
• our contract has an upper limit as to what the employer can provide (only lower limits)
  
• non-represented employees have always received the same benefits as represented folks (they haven’t)
  
• union reps don’t pay dues (we do)

...and suggest that if the decert leaders aren't outright lying about their “research,” they’re dangerously clueless incompetents.


-- Bill, who's now not sure if his pal Brian's a liar or a twit... [grin]

Open letter to “Questions@Vote-No-WTPU.net”...

Pertinent questions not found on the decerter’s “FAQ” webpage...

Question 1: I signed the decertification petition a while back but I’ve recently discovered that at least one of the Decert Focals has been distorting (if not completely misrepresenting) the facts about SPEEA representation. I’ve changed my mind and I now don’t support your effort to decertify SPEEA. How do I get you to take my signature off of your petition?


Question 2: You claim that the unrepresented employees’ benefits are the same as those SPEEA employees have enjoyed. Why are you ignoring the fact is that unrepresented Paycode 2 and 6 employees were denied a “merit” raise in the Spring of 2005, while SPEEA employees received theirs? Doesn’t that action show that, even if the benefits are now “the same,” it’s only at this exact instant in time and, without the guarantees of a contract, our Execs can unilaterally change non-rep wages and benefits tomorrow like they did yesterday?


Question 3: You say our “signatures” are held in strict confidence, but you say nothing about our “names.” The fact that you’re not photocopying my signature is a comfort, but are you providing our names to my coworkers you have out working trying to get more signatures? Are you sharing our names with your National Right To Work Foundation consultants? How about giving them to some outsider from Rose Hill?
     And, when you fall short of the required number of signatures to file, are you going to remember to shred the signed petitions before tossing them in your trash for neighborhood pickup next week?


Question 4: You continue to claim that your “best data” shows that there’s only 275 dues-paying employees in the Spirit WTPU bargaining unit. The best published data I can find, however, would indicate there are at least 575 WTPU duespayers, over twice what you claim. What do you think you know about SPEEA’s membership numbers that I don’t?


-- Bill, who’ll accept any answers y’all might have at the “comments” link, immediately below...

PS: To remove your signatures from the decert petition, send an e-mail to no.wtpu@yahoo.com “Questions@Vote-No-WTPU.net” requesting that they strike your signature from their petition and that they provide you photocopy proof of doing so. CC SPEEA’s new Executive Director at “RayG@speea.org” so the union has a record of your requests; should the decerters refuse to remove your signatures, the union can pursue recourse for fraud.

Union thugs...

From the decerters’ FAQ webpage:

Decerters’ question: A couple of SPEEA folks came to my house and I was intimidated and felt threatened. Who can I report this intimidation to?

Decerters’ answer: Report the incident to the authorities like [a list of organizations, the decerters themselves included, that can’t do anything about stopping reported intimidation]

My answer: I find it difficult to believe that the SPEEA representatives making housecalls would be intimidating or threatening, with or without intent. I mean, it’s not like the union folks visiting WTPU members are argumentative, arrogant a$$holes like me or anything.

But if anyone truly feels intimidated by a SPEEA member’s behavior in promoting our union, they shouldn’t bother writing to the decerters or their Nat’l Right to Work Foundation consultants. Instead, they should contact some “authorities” that actually have real “authority” to do something about stopping it.

The first contact I would make would be the SPEEA office (call 682-0262). Ask for Bob Brewer or Deb Shepard or any of the other folks working there, tell them about the threats, and then hand the telephone over to the intimidating SPEEA rep in your house. Shortly thereafter, you’ll get two things from the SPEEA visitor... your phone returned and a humble and sincere apology for their apparently offensive behavior.

If a contrite apology from a SPEEA rep now missing half their butt isn’t enough to soothe your fears, you should then contact the only other “authority” who could do anything about threats and intimidation (call 911) and have them and their half-assed behavior hauled outta your place in handcuffs.



Decerters’ question: A couple of SPEEA folks came to my house and I was intimidated and felt threatened. How does the union know where I live?

Decerters’ answer: We do not know how SPEEA was able to obtain your address.

My answer: If I had to guess, I’d assume SPEEA obtained the employees’ home mail addresses from the same source that the decerters obtained our work e-mail addresses: from employer records.

The difference is that SPEEA would have received the lists directly from official company sources while the decerters stole acquired this “company information” from access they have to it as a course of their jobs.



-- Bill, who’s quite willing to represent them, should they be called into an investigation for violating the employer’s “misuse of company data” policy...

PS Happy Labor Day