Union Meeting Participation

[TearsInRain]

General membership meetings are supposed to notify the members of the business of the Local Union, not a bitch session about a specific Company. That has to be done on the side before or after the meeting. The meeting should go over negotiations in process and finished, update local and national politics and policies, organizing drives, financial state of the Local, awards and court dealing of the Local, major purchases by the Local, etc. Most Locals do doughnuts or subs to encourage participation.

yes i'm aware i was in the union once upon a time

they were a total waste of time

 

[Gimme Danger]

Teamsters are currently only around 1.2 million nationwide. National Right To Work will be the nail in the coffin for the Teamsters.

Original Teamster Leadership shed blood in order to improve working conditions.

Current Union officers have failed to evolve with organizing and unionizing the new power holders of this type of blue collar work. Teamsters are fading away with the original decade old companies they started with.

Union leadership out of fear of losing an election has decided to keep the union membership ignorant to the mission of the Teamsters. 99% of my fellow Teamsters I work with don’t have the slightest clue who our officers are.

Union membership at my local refuse to attend meetings because union leadership refuse to recognize any ideas the members have, and even bully them into just being quiet.

Not including the entire membership in decisions and educating them on what all the positions do will insure that no one is able to hold them to any type of accountability or standards.

I don’t know any member that actually knows what the Unions officers job descriptions are. No one has a copy of the by-laws. And if you request the by-laws, Union officers try to harass you. Not to mention Union leadership only follow the bylaws if it’s convenient for them. Union leadership interpret the by-laws to their discretion. (Complaining to the JC or International is a waste of time because they comprise of the same individuals.)

My local posts our Bylaws on the local website. Printed copied are readily available on request.

 

[Article 3]

My local posts our Bylaws on the local website. Printed copied are readily available on request.

Rub it in brother.

 

[East coast navy]

I always have to laugh....



I hate to burst your bubble;

But, Local monthly meetings are required by the IBT constitution.






-Bug-

That's not in the IBT constitution. Local 177 meets quarterly.

 

[Bubblehead]

My local posts our Bylaws on the local website. Printed copied are readily available on request.

Rub it in brother.

My Local's website has looked like this for over two years, even though we are still paying a monthly premium to the server.

 

[Box Ox]

My Local's website has looked like this for over two years, even though we are still paying a monthly premium to the server.

Still looks more useful than my Local's website.

 

[Gimme Danger]

teamsterslocal251

 

[Bubblehead]

teamsterslocal251

Looks familiar?

 

[Brownslave688]

Another guy and myself had an idea to bring a member to each meeting beginning in January. Explain to that member that it was his job to bring someone else to the next one, and that the person they brought would do the same, yada, yada, yada. We had 8 members at our last meeting. It’s a disgrace.

It's too far of a drive for me to go often but I try to stick my head in at least once a year.


Without fail I know more than BA about what's going on. This last one was about Saturday ground. When it would start how it work blah blah blah. He said he couldn't imagine it would start before 2018 in 688 because they'd need a lot of time to plan (it was announced a week later they were starting in St. Louis before the end of that month) and basically everything he speculated on how Saturday ground would work was wrong compared everything I had heard on here about how places that had it were actually implementing it.

Why would I waste 4 hours of my day to correct them on all of the inside info they supposedly have?

 

[MyTripisCut]

It's too far of a drive for me to go often but I try to stick my head in at least once a year.


Without fail I know more than BA about what's going on. This last one was about Saturday ground. When it would start how it work blah blah blah. He said he couldn't imagine it would start before 2018 in 688 because they'd need a lot of time to plan (it was announced a week later they were starting in St. Louis before the end of that month) and basically everything he speculated on how Saturday ground would work was wrong compared everything I had heard on here about how places that had it were actually implementing it.

Why would I waste 4 hours of my day to correct them on all of the inside info they supposedly have?

I understand for those that have a distance to travel. My hall is 20 mins from our building.

 

[Brownslave688]

I understand for those that have a distance to travel. My hall is 20 mins from our building.

Yeah I used to make it to about 75% of the meetings when I was 15 min away.

 

[Gimme Danger]

Looks familiar?

What does it look like?

 

[Bubblehead]

What does it look like?

Teamsters United

 

[Gimme Danger]

Teamsters United

I like both sites, but 251 revamped it's site before TU existed. And they don't look the same.

 

[Bubblehead]

I like both sites, but 251 revamped it's site before TU existed. And they don't look the same.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union

 

[Gimme Danger]

Teamsters for a Democratic Union

TU and TDU have a similar look. Looks like the same program. Both are different than 251.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I understand for those that have a distance to travel. My hall is 20 mins from our building.

Our local serves a very large geographical area (3 counties). The hall itself is located in between two of the furthest centers and, as a result, meetings are rotated between 3 locations, except for those meetings not held in June, July and August. We rent a VFW hall locally for our meetings----it is 5 minutes from my house----yet still have a hard time getting people to show up.

Hell, we have a hard time getting people to vote on saving their pension, even when all they have to do is either call, go online or sent their ballot in through the mail.

 

[BigUnionGuy]

That's not in the IBT constitution. Local 177 meets quarterly.

You're right. That must be in your Local bylaws. I can say, I never heard of a Local

that had only quarterly meetings. My Local requires monthly meetings subject

to the disapproval of a vote by the membership. (which is how summer meetings

are suspended) If the General Executive Board only meets quarterly, apparently

so can Locals. The IBT must have approved it. But for a Local your size.... it's odd.



-Bug-

 

[BigUnionGuy]

Hell, we have a hard time getting people to vote on saving their pension, even when all they have to do is either call, go online or sent their ballot in through the mail.

That was disappointing, seeing those vote totals.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

That was disappointing, seeing those vote totals.

Yes, it was.

As I said, all they had to do was either call the toll free number or go online, provide the code, and cast their ballot. They could also vote by mail.