Union Member Warns Employee Free Choice Act Would Be A Big Mistake

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 by Admin

We have received a message from a longtime union member — a carpenter with the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters for more than two decades — who says the Employee Free Choice Act “would be a big mistake.” The writer, whose name we have withheld, writes:

Currently there are about 43,000 members in the CRC, down from a high of 48,000 two years ago. Thats a drop of about 5,000 members in two years. Those 5,000 members who have dropped out were contributing to the pension fund, now at about $7.50 an hour. The bulk of the members who drop out are not vested in the union, and their money disappears in the pension fund. If the union is able to freely sign on new members, without providing stable employment, they will be able to increase the amount of cash flow going into the pension fund, the new member will stick around for a year or two and realize there is no steady work and move on. This also hurts the members who have been around for along time, because they also can not find steady work. Its like the purpose of the union is to keep letting herds of new members in while the majority of the existing members struggle to find work. The CRC just got a $3.50 an hour raise, a union carpenter lucky enough to have a job now earns $40.77 an hour[1 $ an hour increase], 2$ going in to the pension[now7.50$ an hour], and .67 in to health insurance[ now at $9.50 an hour]. The members did not vote on this raise, just like the members do not vote on any decisions in the union. The CRC currently has $100,660,342 in assets, while the bulk of the members who are jobless, struggling to put food on their tables are not reaping any of the benefits of belonging to a union. If one checks the dol[department of labor web page] one can view how the union is squandering away millions of dollars on the self serving union leaders. goto: http//erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do use file # 001-949. Some numbers of interest from the web page; $198,000 apprentice graduation party, another $130,000 for office catering.

The CRC spends millions of dollars promoting national and local elections, encouraging members to vote. But then when they have their own election with in the union the rules change. Members are deliberately not informed about the elections. The union officials use undemocratic tactics to stay in power. All one has to do is view the records, almost all of their elections are won by acclimation [members do not participate]. [redacted to remove personally identifiable information] The union has become part of the problem, they could create more jobs if they were not charging so much money, supply and demand, but the union charges more money so more members will have to drop out and new members can be brought on board. EFCA will be a disaster for the future of the CRC, it will enable the union to get richer, while the union gets weaker.

Truly troubling stuff.

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2 Responses to “Union Member Warns Employee Free Choice Act Would Be A Big Mistake”

  1. June 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    me says:

    Bullshit — Publish the authors name. Otherwise you’re just making the stuff up.

  2. June 24th, 2009 at 9:11 am

    admin says:

    Well, “me” you certainly made the case for withholding the name. There’s plenty of facts in there to check out for yourself, but you demand a person’s name. Sounds like a good reminder of what “card check” is all about — the option to intimidate those who don’t toe the line.