2. The Story Starts- Background

 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 employee without union representation so he really couldn't do anything about it.  

A few months before the election 3 years ago, the XBM decided he was going to take a job at the International office in another state.  This came completely out of left field for all of those at the Local.  He took the job and about 2 weeks later he left.  He didn't stay to help train the new guy who would be taking his place, he really didn't have much of a thought for anyone but himself and he left.  

This left the E-board to appoint someone as Business Manager, CBM said he would like a shot and was appointed.  Then CBM jumped right in and while learning the ins and outs of a new job, he needed to start campaigning because the election for his position was coming up in a few months. 

This is about the time that HBM decided that he would like to be the Business Manager.  Yep, the guy who tried to screw the Local over by misappropriating money.  They same guy who, it was discovered when he turned in his company laptop, had naked pictures of women who were not his wife and some that might not have even known they had their picture taken, stored on his company laptop.  That guy, wanted to be THE guy in charge.  

Ludicrous? Yes.  Unheard of? Nope.  But luckily people were smart and voted the CBM back into his newly begotten job.  CBM got almost twice as many votes as HBM.  Many hoped that HBM would fade away and for the next three years, he basically did. 

 CBM carried the Local through the pandemic, started and joined organizations to put people to work, read legislation and explained it to others who couldn't understand it and was so fiscally responsible that the Local ended up with a budget surplus far surpassing any other Business Manager in recent memory.  It couldn't have been easy, but CBM worked hard for his union, his agents, and his members and made it happen.  

Now we enter the land of 2022 and the year of the election.  CBM is running to keep his position but SURPRISE!! XBM didn't like the job at the International and now after ditching the Local wants his old job back.  XBM walks into CBM's office, hands in fists, just livid, and declares that he is running against CBM.  The funny thing is, that had XBM come in and talked civilly, CBM most likely would have sat down and they could have come to an agreement on something.  But alas, testosterone and narcissism are not a great mix!

XBM states, "When I win I am going to keep one, maybe two people on staff and get rid of everyone else!"  By this he means the Business Agents alone because the AA's are part of another union and have employment protection.  The Business Agents, along with the Organizers and Dispatchers, are the only at-will employees at the Local. 

Once HBM hears that XBM (the Business Manager that fired HBM) is running, HBM decides he is going to run too.  So we have CBM, XBM, and HBM all with their hats in the ring.  

HBM is smarter than he lets on though.  What he realized is that XBM and CBM came from the same large section of the union and there was a good chance they would split the votes from that large section.  HBM is from another large section and there's a great chance that he will not have to split the votes.  

In a de ja vu of the Trump election, many people believed that CBM "had it in the bag" so they didn't vote.  HBM was right, the other two split the vote.  Out of over 4,000 members only 800 voted- HBM received 400 votes, CBM received slightly more than XBM.  

HBM is the Business Manager Elect and will be sworn in next month.

This sounds like the end of the story, but I promise you, this is exactly where it begins to get interesting. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3- Why not?

 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...
Read more

4- Where we stand now

 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...
Read more

1. From the beginning- union structure

 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....
Read more