Save Our Union

We were sold a bill of goods.  It turns out that it was never to be a "merger", but rather the UTU was being "acquired" by the SMWIA.   Our union & possibly the UTUIA were going to be sold, lock, stock and barrel by leadership that did not give damn about the rank-and-file members who have paid the freight with their hard-earned dues. Why?
 
Paul Thompson and his cronies have lived high on the hog.  They have misspent our dues monies & insurance premiums so they could stay in high dollar resorts, eat and drink expensive meals and pad their expense accounts. Thompson took his buddies to high-dollar resorts for vacations and paid for it with our dues and insurance premiums.   They took over half our dues money in one year alone and put it into their officer's pension fund.  All along, they hid their activities behind a smoke-screen of blaming others for the problems.
 
Thompson, Brokenrail, Marceau and Hakey have ruled our union with arrogance, intimidation and political retribution.   They've ignored their lawful duty to the members. Many of the rest of our elected leaders, because of the potential for harsh retribution, were unable to stand up to them, even though they may have wanted to.
 
They used a slick PR campaign to convince us that the SMART merger was the right thing to do.   They used their positions of political power to "convince" other officers to endorse their merger.   They violated their fiduciary duty to us.   And they almost got away with it. 
 
Look at it from Paul Thompson's and Brokenrail's point-of-view.  The SMART merger would:
 
On January 1, 2008 immediately send the UTU General Fund into the SMWIA General Fund so that no one would ever be able to discover just how they had been throwing our money away for their frivolous activities.
Make wholesale changes in the UTU constitution which would destroy any semblance of democracy and autonomy.
Place the SMART Transportation Division (UTU) under the thumb of the dictatorship rule of the SMWIA constitution.
Place David Hakey in charge of the SMART Transportation Division, over and above the democratically elected UTU President.   Who knows how many others they had plans for?
Possibly give them the chance to make millions with the sale of the UTUIA.
 
The sad part of it is they are engineers and conductors just like you and me, but they have spent so much time away from their seniority positions that they began to believe they were special and entitled to whatever they wanted to steal or give away.   They no longer know the conditions we work under.  They don't have to work nights and weekends.  They haven't had to go to work on their rest in years.   They haven't lived through the changes we have been subjected to for the past ten years.
 
Thompson and Brokenrail, knew without a shadow of a doubt, they were violating their fiduciary duties to the members when they sent the SMART merger agreement out for a vote.   In 2001, a similar case was filed in Federal Court in Cleveland which forced a second vote of BLE members in the BLE/UTU merger proposal. The BLE and UTU were told then by Judge Ann Aldrich that they had an absolute fiduciary duty under the law to FULLY INFORM THEIR MEMBERS about the specifics of any proposed mergers.   In fact, Clint Miller, the UTU General Counsel, signed the final Stipulation and Consent Order in that 2001 case.  In 2007, they knew they were violating our rights under Title I of the Labor and Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), but they disregarded them, hoping to orchestrate a sellout of the UTU, crossing their fingers, doing an end-run around our LMRDA rights, hoping they wouldn't get caught and believing the members couldn't stop them.
 
It is amazing that Paul Thompson's alleged fear of Teamsters was successfully overcome to allow him to serve on the Advisory Board of American Income Life Insurance Company with James Hoffa and Mike Sullivan while still representing the UTUIA and being on their Board of Directors.  
 
 
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
 
As you know there is a lawsuit which is now in Federal Court in Akron , Ohio.  That lawsuit has been brought by four UTU members to enforce our lawful rights to be told the truth and to end the farce which Brokenrail, Thompson, Marceau and Hakey have perpetrated.
 
Also as you know, the UTU officers who were elected at Convention have now assumed office.   President Mike Futhey, Assistant President Arty Martin, and General Secretary and Treasurer Kim Thompson and others are now in office and have made it obvious they are, openly and honestly, going to try to protect our rights.   They have made it clear, through their actions that the days of Thompson and Brokenrail type tactics are coming to a close.  President Futhey's recent talk of inclusivity, tolerance, diversity and consensus should be encouraging to all of us.   His willingness to put the merger issue openly and honestly before the members is exactly what we need.
 
Unfortunately, it seems that President Futhey's breath of fresh air has not yet reached all our International Officers.   There are obviously seven members of the new Board of Directors who still subscribe to the old motto of "feed them manure and keep them in the dark".   They are:  John Babler, Vic Baffoni, Roy Boling, James Brunkenhoefer, J.R. Cumby, John Fitzgerald and Tony Iannone.
 
Do all seven of them actually believe this or are they being misled by one or two others?   Have they had the opportunity to really think about it?   Have they actually read and digested ALL the information and court documents?   Or, are they just letting someone else decide for them?   They obviously seem willing to violate THEIR own fiduciary duty to us.   What have they been promised by, what sort of deal have they struck with, the Sheet Metal Workers? Hopefully, six of them will soon understand that Brokenrail is leading them down the wrong path -away from the members they should be representing.
 
WHAT CAN WE DO?
 
We must continue to support the lawsuit in Akron .   You and your Local can help stand up for your rights by making a donation to the legal fund.  Send your badly needed help to:
 
Save Our Union                                      
101 Stoney Point Estates Drive     OR   Click Here for Donation Form 
Beebe, AR   72012.                              Donations from Locals  Click here

 

 

We can each (as can our Locals) write to the seven members of the Board of Directors who want to keep us in the dark and push Thompson's merger deal through without any further consultation with the membership, and who still support our sellout to the SMWIA.   We can demand that they explain their actions.  We can demand that they actually read and understand the SMART merger agreement and the court documents.   We can ask them why we were never given the SMART constitution as required by the merger agreement.   We can ask them, in light of all the things we know now if they still want to sell us out.   We can ask them about THEIR fiduciary duty to require the UTU to fully inform its members. We can ask them to attend our Local meetings and explain their actions.
 
We can (and our Locals can too) also write or email Mike Futhey, Arty Martin and Kim Thompson and express our thanks for their commitment to keep us informed.
 
Brothers and Sisters, we have a unique opportunity to get involved in the future of our union.   Please stand up and let your voices be heard.
 
 
PS  Please pass this information on to your fellow UTU members.