The Workers Choice Slate Real Reform. Lower Dues. Workers First.

Teamsters’ Local 812 is at a crossraods. We can continue down the path of questionable leadership that supports the status quo, or we can elect new leaders who will support real reforms to make the management of our local more transparent and inclusive, fight to cut operating costs and expenditures to lower members’ dues, and promote issues that put the worker first, not power grabs or special interests. Our current executive board has split into two slates. They are slinging mud, as each side desperately fights to hold onto power. It is said that a house divided cannot stand. Neither can our Local. We need new leadership that will get Local 812 headed in the right direction with fresh new ideas.

Real Reform

Every year our Local must file an annual report listing all the things your union dues are spent on. Unfortunately, this information is never made easily available to the members. If you go to the Supermarket after you pay the cashier hands you a receipt. They do this so that you can see what you paid for and don’t make you jump through hoops to get it. You’d never go to a store, pay, and not expect a receipt. So why should you pay Union Dues and not see what you are paying for? This team will make sure that Local 812’s expenditures are easily acceptable so you can have a say in how your money is spent.

We will also make sure Union meetings are more inclusive of members. Instead of holding them on a weeknight we’ll look to hold them on Saturdays as well. We’ll rotate locations each month so that every member has a chance to attend. All too often the current leadership expects the members to come to them. That is not acceptable. Leaders should lead by reaching out to the members and should make themselves accessible and approachable all the time, not just when it’s election time.

This team will represent you 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Lower Dues

The only way to lower union dues is to cut operating costs. Cuts must start at the top. Our Executive Board is overpaid. That isn’t an opinion that is a fact. Our team will agree to cut out pay 10% on day one. We will also agree to a pay freeze for the entire length of the current contract (does this make sense if there are different contracts?). Why should our members agree to continue to the terms of the old contract for the next 5 years, but our executive board can arbitrarily give themselves raises? The burden of a bad economy should be shared from top to bottom.

We must also look at cutting expenses such as trips and dinner meetings that are paid for by the members. When the Executive Board starts pretending your money is their own money it is time to send them packing! We’ll set a concrete policy for cars as well. If a car policy was in place the entire issue with President Wojciechowski’s vehicle could have been avoided. While we can’t change the past, we will change the future.

Another thing that needs to be looked at is expense for legal bills. Our members need strong legal representation to settle dispute with management. We are in favor of lawyers who regret nothing and fear even less representing members. However, we must see if there is a more affordable way to do this. In 2010 our Union spent over $3 million dollars. One third of that, over $1 million dollars, went to pay for representation, including attorneys. Every penny spent must be scrutinized to make sure that none of your money is being wasted.

Workers First

Our opponents are talking a lot about car schemes, the big pay raises they gave themselves, and running campaigns that invoke the politics of personal destruction against each other. This is supposed to be an election decided by what candidates can make our Local stronger, it won’t be decided by what candidates can hurl the best insults. It is time to talk about the members. Time to talk about the people who make up this Local. The members who leave home early and get home late so they can provide for their families. The members who push themselves to the brink of exhaustion because their paycheck is helping open doors and give new opportunities to their children and grandchildren. This team will be a voice for those members.

Our team will not spend our time arguing about who should be blamed for money stolen out of a safe or trying to use your money to pay for a Cadillac. Our opponents are tossing the blame claiming neither side was responsible for the bad judgment and mismanagement that has failed our members for the past several years. The truth is this has been a long charge and both of our opposing slates included the grifters in charge!

It is time to elect a team that will stand up for you and put you the worker first!