First Executive Branch Negotiations Team Elections Held

On Saturday the 13th the first four members of the negotiations teams for the Executive Branch were elected. You should be getting your post cards with a listing of all the other members within a week from today, September 16.

I was elected the first member of the Pro-Tech bargaining team (Tom Maher). I intend to do my best in what looks to be very tough times. Today the stock market fell over 500 points and by the time you read this post it may be worse. We will need the very best people we can get to go to the table for us this time. I met one of the candidates for the Pro-Tech team today and I can tell you that he is sharp, concerned for all State Employees and I am certain he will give his best for Pro-Tech. I was very impressed by his distaste for single issue bargaining. I certainly hope our candidate has a sense of humor. I didn't tell him I put up illustrations and photos on my posts.
Please read this post from Hector Cyr.

Hi to all,

My name is Hector Cyr. I am a fire inspector with the State Fire Marshal’s Office, in the Pro- Tech bargaining unit and asking for your support to put me on the Bargaining Team to support your wants and needs.

I have only 7 ½ years in the State system but during that time have noticed many disparities in the way the state is treating it’s union members. I want to try to change that by being your voice at the bargaining table and meeting face to face with the STATE to fight for your needs.

I originally attended bargaining committee meetings because I had a single agenda in mind that our shop wanted brought before the committee. After attending two meeting I decided that there are many more issue than I ever imagined. That is why I am wanting to be on your bargaining team. I come with not just one agenda and am willing to learn and fight for your needs. We are a unit the needs to be together in bargaining for all. Not one that is driven by single issues. We collectively need to present the State with our needs and convince them that we are serious.

If you are wanting an individual that will work for your needs and not just one issue, support me with your vote for the bargaining team.

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Pretending to sound like a Republican

I try to be fair and present topics in an even handed manner. The following is an opinion piece driven by the disgust I have over knowing that Carl Rove is trying to steal another election from America. Everything in this post is presented as my opinion and only my opinion. If you agree, great, if you don't...........................the dotted line is supposed to represent a short pier.

LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES,

I am not going to be accused of being too subtle like many of my Democratic friends.

I was for the bridge, before I was against it. I am against pork but I kept the bridge money anyway said Sarah Palin. John McCain took tens of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions and said “oops”. John McCain dumped his faithful wife after she waited years for him, after he found that she had been in an accident and was no longer the beauty she was. First he cheated on her, and then he dumped her. McCain lied about his cheating before the facts came out.

Can you say moral majority? He is so out of touch with America that he thinks it is OK to forget how many houses you have. She took payments from her state to work at home. She says she loves and respects her husband. Well he thought Alaska should secede from the U.S. She still loves him.

If you are a woman she does not think you have the right to control your own body. If you get raped and beaten by an AIDS carrying psychopath she would lock you in a barn and force you to have the child

If Sarah McCain’s Palin says Obama and any other words the other words are lies or meant as sarcasm. She and McCain are both constant liars. Political advertising has sunk to a new low, thanks to McCain, Palin, and here in Maine Susan Collins, by the way, she is a liar too. Claiming to vote for Maine when she has been a tongue hanging out, tail wagging, fetch the ball, lapdog for George Bush. Did I mention that she is a liar?

McCain says Obama will raise your taxes. If you can commute to work on a private jet or yacht your taxes will go up. If you are worried about the cost of gas, your taxes will go down.

McCain says he will lower your taxes. Well if you get any health care at all from your employer he is going to tax those benefits in order to pay for the tax cuts for the rich. Any Union member voting for McCain should use their benefits while they still have them for a psychiatric exam.

Local lies.

Susan Collins promised to serve only two terms. Susan Collins lied. We owe it to her to help give her the strength to keep her word. She said in an interview that she had talked to Union members during an organizing campaign. She lied or had so little concern for labor that she couldn’t remember where or when.

She said she doesn’t like third party ads...

She has not disavowed the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, the out of State money behind the campaign of anti-union ads that has been on constantly since the spring.

The ads claim that they are on the air to help protect workers right to vote. When was the last time a Wal-Mart employee got to vote on working conditions? Only Union members get to vote!

I am insulted not only as a Union member but more importantly as a Mainer. The fat cats don’t think Mainers have the ability to look beyond the lies and question the motive.

These ads are paid for by groups that have fought Unions since the New Deal. Billionaires and poor millionaires trying to take back the time when the boss was “The Man” and if you crossed “the man” you lost everything, maybe even your life.

It is not just a matter of money it is a matter of raw power, “the man” can not stand to share power with anyone.

The amount of money spent during the last fifty years on political influence could have paid for the benefits and working conditions that Unions have fought for.

What is the immediate goal? They think that all Mainers including rank and file Union members are dumber than a box of rocks. They think if they tell you enough lies long enough you will fall for it. I have more confidence in Mainers than that.

If they were more honest in the ads they would tell you that the real intent is to save you from voting on a contract, or a health care plan. They want to save you the worry of wondering what to do with the raise you and your Union negotiated for you. They want you to sit down, shut up, and let the smart guys (them) make all the decisions. You will pay all the taxes. You will be on the bottom of a two level outhouse enjoying trickle down economics. You will finally be able to relax knowing that the economy will get so much better that even more will trickle down. You will jump for joy knowing that you have enabled the government to stop taxing the billionaires.

Unions have historically backed Democrats. This November the Republicans only have one goal. They must keep the Democrats from reaching 60 Senators because if they don’t it won’t matter even if McLiar and Paliar get elected the congress can’t be stopped by just a few Republicans selling their souls for oil money.

The ads are well done, what do you expect from a company that even took on Mothers Against Drunk Driving? The whole ad is based not on interpretation, but lies. The Employee Free Choice Act, which Allen and most major U.S. unions’ support, does not deny members the option of secret balloting in contract votes. It would strengthen legal protections for workers and put penalties in place for illegal firing of employees or illegal threats made against employees.

I won’t argue that Union leaders sometimes abuse their power of members. One of the ads says 2000 claims and then 600 indictments. That means that seven out of ten accusations are thrown out immediately. The ad never says how many convictions. The ad never says that over thirty thousand employees were to receive back pay in 2005 due to illegal actions by crooked employers.

That is over thirty thousand convictions against employers.

The ad is full of lies. Oh yeah, and more lies...

Electing politicians who support the Employee Free

Choice Act won't get you a raise in a week. Electing the wrong politicians will guarantee that employers and investors will get even more power. If they want to ship your job to China they will make you train your replacement and then kick you out the door. Remember the term YoYo economics when you think Republican. They will kick you out the door, they will bail out the millionaire investors in Wall Street failures, but when your kids need help YoYo, you’re on your own.

While the ads focus on the method Americans use to choose to join a Union, a method called majority vote, they don’t tell you that when they are trying to bust a Union they can come to your house, threaten your job, and then only need three out of ten votes to force an expensive decertification campaign. This technique has been used over and over in order to force dues money into the pockets of Union busting lawyers and keep it out of the hands of the members it belongs to.

A strong Union is a strong political force, a force that could throw the bums out. Fear and greed, hate for democracy, and while they picture themselves scraping you off the bottom of their shoes as something they stepped in they can wipe their shoes off with hundred dollar bills.

Just remember they fought family leave, collective bargaining, the forty hour week, safe working conditions and tried fought off an increase in the minimum wage any time they were in control.

Sept. 14 update: Maybe you think Susan Collins loves the working class because she has tried to get work to the Bath shipyards. How does that square with the fact that she would let John McCain tax every health care dollar those workers earn? She would let their pay be cut by an effective ten to twenty percent. The shipyard owners would still make money, but the minds, muscle, and sweat that build those ships would be punished for not being rich.

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Jack McKay tells Susan Collins to "Do your homework".

Editor: Just like Sarah Palin Susan Collins must think that if you lie long enough and loud enough you will be believed. Susan Collins is sucking down the out of State money. She does nothing for Maine except vote to help destroy the economy and ship jobs abroad with her bud G. Bush.
All of the highlighting is mine, added for emphasis.

Collins: Do your Homework!

watch on channels 2 and 5, WERU, WKIT next week

Workers and members of Food AND Medicine, a Brewer, based non profit Food AND Medicine whose mission includes support for worker rights

Over 25 members of Food AND Medicine demonstrated today in front of the Federal builsing calling on Senator Collins to "Do your homework!. They demonstrating petitions to Senator Susan Collins about her arrogantly telling workers what's best for us, without have ever talked to a Maine worker involved in an organizing campaign!. Senator Collins participated in the filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act, hasn’t conducted investigations into worker rights violations during organizing campaigns in Maine despite requests to do so and is now echoing the lines of the current anti-union ads. Participants provided first hand testimony of organizing a union in Eastern Maine along with evidence of the misinformation campaign on unions that currently benefits Senator Collins.

see press release below.

Food AND Medicine In the richest country in the world, no one should have to choose between food and medicine 20 Ivers Street - Brewer, ME 04412 989-5860 www.foodandmedicine.org

Bangor, ME- Members of Food AND Medicine today protested Senator Susan Collins’ efforts on worker rights generally and specifically on the Employee Choice Act specifically.

Food AND Medicine is a Brewer based non-profit whose mission is to support worker rights and aid laid off workers.

“Last year Senator Collins filibustered the Employee Free Choice Act, whose purpose is to aid workers organizing into unions. To our knowledge she hasn’t talked to a single Maine worker who has actively supported organizing a union. That’s like filibustering legislation on banking without ever having talked to a banker,” said Food AND Medicine director Jack McKay.

McKay adds, “We met with her on Monday and for the first time she had the chance to listen to a worker, Steve Husson, who has been in an organizing campaign. She claimed that she has met with workers in organizing campaigns and when we asked who, she said a worker at Hannafords and one at a paper mill. The Hannaford worker was not engaged in an organizing campaign and the paper mill was organized in the 1940s.”

“And now, with these anti-union ads, Senator Collins is using the exact same ridiculous talking points. She says she can’t in good conscience take away the private ballot of a worker in an organizing campaign. She doesn’t seem to get that the only workers who vote by private ballot on worker conditions are those in unions. Her filibustering has directly hindered workers from getting a voice or a vote on the job.”

McKay adds, “It’s just incredible that she has failed to do her homework, filibustered this bill and still doesn’t get it.

Steve Husson, a board member of Food AND Medicine and a former DHL worker who participated in their organizing campaign, “I finally got a chance to speak to Sen. Collins about what really happens in the process of a union election from my experience at DHL. How unbalance the election becomes when the company has a captive audience. I told her that it is as fair an election in Zimbabwe. A short description of what happened after we won the vote: we were fired for supporting the union. Democrats like Mike Michaud and Tom Allen met with us to support us. Republicans like Sen. Carol Weston, Paul Davis and Richard Rosen all met with us. We tried to speak with Senator Collins, but got no response. Sen. Collins stuck with her standard position on the private ballot and offered no proposals. She seemed to be close minded to the reality of what goes on in organizing campaigns.”

William Rice, a board member and Secretary of Food AND Medicine states that “by blocking EFCA, Collins is actually denying workers the ballot, not guaranteeing them the ballot- because only union members vote.”

************************************
Jack McKay, Director
Food AND Medicine
20 Ivers Street
Brewer, ME 04412
www.foodandmedicine.org

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