From A Site Reader: Death By A Thousand Cuts

I'm still troubled by all the finger pointing, name calling and outright slander of officers who have served this organization for many years. I've listened to the CD that was sent and will listen to it again but was Paul wrong in saying a delegate w/ a $250. airfare instead was paid several thousand dollars to attend our convention. And this practice should continue. How would your members feel about that?

When Paul spoke about craft autonomy I think what I heard was "is it right for 10 members of a craft to vote down an agreement for the majority." Is it time to look at that for the good of all? He spoke in an open forum. I don't think what he said was meant to be a secret though I don't think he was aware he was being recorded.

That says more about those doing the recording than who was being recorded. I've felt for some time in the guise of protecting our members rights and constitution an agenda has been pushed because some members realized there was going to be changes in how the UTU would operate as part of SMART. I never thought from the time the merger was first announced till now that we would continue to do business in the same way that we had.

I did think we would have a greater sense of autonomy than with any other merger partner. In addition the SMWIA in the merger document put enough UTU officers on their General Executive Board (?) that we (UTU) could stop actions by that Board.

As a minority union I don't think we could have asked for a better deal. And it sure didn't sound to me like SMWIA was trying to take advantage of us. I realize that's my opinion and you're free to disagree.

Finally there are many ways for an organization to die, quickly or by a thousand cuts.