Uh, What?!?

 As of right now, there is a draft of a contract in existence.  This contract simply writes down all of the expectations of a Business Agent, Organizer, or Dispatcher exactly as they are currently being performed with two exceptions.  First, it adds in a Just Cause clause, protecting the jobs of the people who have been successfully fulfilling those jobs to date.  Second, it adds in sick leave at a reasonable rate.  The very agents who fight for others to have sick leave were not guaranteed any of their own.  If they weren't feeling well, they would call in and it would be forwarded to the E-Board to approve or deny.  If it was denied then the little vacation time they earned was docked for the sick time.  Uh, What?  The contract protected the union as well.  If the Agents were not doing their jobs as outlined in the contract then the union had just cause to fire them.   There are do's and don'ts on the side of the company/mana...

 So last time we found out that XBM was running and threatening to fire everyone on staff (aka the Business Mangers).  This is something that *could* happen but most Business Managers understand that their agents are the ones the members trust.  Most Business Managers are decent people and not in it for themselves; most but obviously not all.   A few of the Business Agents decided that this wasn't okay.  They worked their butts off for their members.  They had gotten jobs and back pay back for people who were unjustly fired.  They worked with companies to create programs for retention of employees.  They had put their heart and soul into their jobs.  How was it ok that they could help protect the jobs of others as Business Agents of a Union, but they themselves have no protection?  They decided that whatever happened with the election, they were not going to sit by and watch someone on a power trip tear apart the union they helped b...

 As I previously stated, every three years there is an election to see who is going to become the next Business Manager to lead the Hall, direct it's finances, and generally support every single person from the Business Agents, to the AA's, to the members and potential members.  In this arena, we have 3 main players and our story starts years ago when the Current Business Manager (CBM) was just an agent, the Ex-Business Manager (XBM) had yet to take a job at the International, and the Hopeful Business Manager (HBM) was fired from being a Business Agent for a multitude of reasons (company truck getting impounded, mis-using union funds by putting his divorce attorney retainer on his company credit card and they needed to garnish his wages for him to repay the money, among other things.) At this time the XBM was in charge, CBM was his right hand man, and HBM was no longer the Local's problem, though he wasn't happy that he was fired.  But remember he was an at-will employe...

 For those that don't know, our family is a union family.  We believe that unions fight for worker's rights and help to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for employees.  We are dues paying, card carrying, proud members.   Here is a bit of structure so that you can understand the story a bit better.  The labor union I'm talking about is an international union and has a structure a bit like our government.  "The International", as it is referred to, is like the federal government.  The different districts are like the state government in the fact that they are the mid level, though each district covers multiple states.  The locals are like the county or city level of government- roughly.   I'm just going to call our local, the Local.  It is run by a Business Manager who oversees everything that goes on at the Local.  That person is helped out by the Executive Board which provides a checks and balances system....