THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE UNION WORKER

By Penny McQuaig

Yes, I know that there is high-octane discontent with UNION.  The corruption,  the indifference and ignorance has been a huge offense against the union community.  The UNION HAS SOLD US OUT AGAIN with the last offer from Verizon.  I hear the cry of the brotherhood, here they go again..always a disappointment, but from whose eyes do I see this reticence of members about the perceived injustice being done to them by their very own unions?  Do I interpret these views of arrogance and weakness from an emotional base or do I dare examine OUR intellectual self-defense?  

If we challenge from an emotional outlook then all we seem to see is ourselves as victims of a hierarchy that we elected time after time. With this reference, our only temporary remedy is the sound of our own dissent and hopelessness. 

I believe that we need to challenge our own INTELLECTUAL SELF DEFENSE, or lack thereof.  What Verizon offered may seem like a sizable amount on the surface but at what cost on the back-end?  Have we looked both ways-past and future of Verizon?  Have they ever offered anything of benefit to us without an ulterior motive?  Do we know what was discussed between our Union and Verizon?

I know that they sent us an email about Health Care that tells us if we read between the lines, that they were trying to convince us that with the new bill they will have to ask us to pay into our health care and especially retirees.  Well congress wasn’t even satisfied with that one(see previous post).

I know that they WOULD NOT insure the discontinuance of further layoffs if the Union was able to get 12,000 members to take what was being offered.    Since when does Verizon bypass the Union and appeals directly to its members?  I smell a Rat!  I say Verizon has tried to exploit our discontent with our union.  But the only problem with that is that we have not let Verizon hear and feel our discontent with them.

We have to arm ourselves for a momentous fight with this company.  We cannot win if we are not ORGANIZED and in SOLIDARITY.  Verizon has already appealed to a wink link in our armor and we verified our weakness by our response to their appeal.  Imagine how strong we would be if we were EDUCATED, INFORMED and ORGANIZED!  These factors not only strengthen and revitalizes us as members, but it also teaches us how to demand respect and trust from our union officials.  We must build an INTELLECTUAL  DEFENSE against what has been an ongoing onslaught against UNION! 

I will try to bring to you the tools and information that you need and hope that you will do the same for me.  But we must all be open to receive the information and critique of our actions.  Doing the same thing and getting the same result is no longer acceptable.  “Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared”,  so let us make it a new DAWN for union, before union IS NO MORE!!!

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