Monday, June 27, 2005
SPEEA-Onex negotiations reopen...
Well, we had our first day of "official" negotiations with The New Boss today, where we picked up pretty much where we left off, the day after the IAM rejected the offer: Onex gave us a counter-offer to our last counter-proposal. Not surprisingly, it looked pretty much like the initial conditions they imposed on us on Day One. (Including, of course, items not yet publicly detailed, stuff like overtime rates and use of PERBUS/NonIND and such.)
Their presentation went about as expected, where we listened and watched Company negotiators as they sang and danced around our questions as to why some takeaway provisions they're offering absolutely have to be the same for all employees, but others need to be takeaways targeted to only us.
We completed the offer discussion early enough to catch lunch in the hotel cafeteria before they closed. We then spent the afternoon comparing their offer to our last counter, wasting time looking for all their changes, because they inexplicably turned off "change tracking" in the Word document we've been passing back and forth.
We then reviewed and discussed the changes, prepared a counter, and returned it to Onex this evening. They are to come back with an offer -- potentially their "final" -- tomorrow morning. (If the final is not tomorrow, it will be soon. Real soon.)
-- Bill, who anticipates your next update coming through more "official" channels...
I expect, like the Machinists, putting back the laid off workers on the union recall list will be an Onex bargaining chip. I am sure they played the IAM international against the local lodge with the pension fiasco. SPEEA doesn't have that problem.
I wonder what the price will be for Onex to release their "hostages"? I hope it is not a recommendation to accept by the negotiators.
To knuckle under now would be the same as sanctifying Turner's lies, Wright's threats, and Stonecipher's revenge against the WTPU for forming.
Harvard MBAs and Chicago School economics PhDs will make case studies of how unions can be crushed through asset sale.
The WTPU was voted into existence because people down there saw what people up here could do if they showed some backbone.
Barely one half of the union and only one third of the bargaining unit voted for the strike. The other two thirds consisting of equal parts of non-members and yes-voters supported the walkout in overwhelming numbers.
This was in defiance of our own negotiators, AFL-CIO experts and all of the Corporate media propaganda. We won anyway.
It wasn't about dollars and cents. It was about respect. They are betting you will act like Homo Economicus instead of like citizens. Or worse, like sheep to be shorn or slaughtered at their whim.
I know I am preaching to the choir here, but somebody has to make the point that nobody should have to put up with that shit.
And if you do and you vote to accept, you get what you deserve.
-DWF
: 9:58 PMMany members are content with proposal
Nigel Wright at the membership meeting? Whose idea was that?
The people who lost their jobs can't get into a meeting of a Union they organized, and the corporate raider that sacked them for organizing gets in instead.
Lowered hayve Murcey! Brothers and Sisters, that is worse than tragic. The only saving grace of the situation is the lack of a quorum at the meeting. Otherwise the sellout would be complete.
If there was ever a time to get out the "No" vote, this is it. I'd call it "Bring Your Ballot to Work Day" on Monday and bring it to the Union Hall during lunch before the counting begins.
And Heaven help you all. (But if you won't help each other, don't expect miracles.)
-DWF
: 3:22 AM