uaw12

It is a sad day for all the hard workers at Chicago Assembly, members on LTS status received automated calls last night informing them that their services were no longer needed and they were terminated. Another slap in the face right before the Holidays and the fact that the Union gave them no advance notice and was AWOL to answer questions is not the way to promote being in a Union.

I would not believe what is happening right now at Chicago Assembly. Coby our Chairman, Carlo the President and the Bargaining Team are telling the LTS's that if they do not vote them as delegates to the Convention that Jimmy Settles will cut them loose. After all the crying about tactics by the Senators in the VW organization drive I can't wait to get a response from the V.P. of the IUAW if he is aware and agrees with these tactics? And yes there are 23 signed names on a formal letter confirming this that is notarized and on it's way to the IUAW head quarters and the NLRB. Shameful that they would lie to these new members, it reminds all of us of the last days of the Chairman in 2010!!!!!

Hey Tigerfan I am Grant not you! Now Dumbfounded we have established that you are a great detective and everybody is Grant so it is time for you to answer the issues I raised about classifications, not being in re-balance period, and I missed 1 the union dues being increased and supported by our Bargaining Team and language allowing it to be used for anything the IUAW wishes. I would love paint repair if any jobs were posted in the plant but as I have pointed out the premium jobs are being eliminated but that is Grant's fault, I'm sorry my fault.

Dumbfounded I am 1 of thousands of Grant's in the plant, we hate the path we are on. I like many people understand we blamed 1 person for our small issues compared to what we face now. Good try though, o'yea if it is a coward move to use an alias on an anonymous board please let us know your identity so all the thousands of Grant's can let you know just how brilliant you are. You blame 1 person but do not dispute any of the facts laid out by all the Grant's. LOL.

Dumbfounded, you are typical passive aggressive. You disagree with everybody that does not drink the cool aid as you have. You talk about man up, come up to pre-delivery now and talk to the drivers that are as we speak being eliminated because an agreement was cut to cut SPC jobs(outside the re-balance period) and the SPC members are going to bump us out of our jobs against the local. Turn to page 35 of our local or 105 of our local and then come up to pre-delivery and deliver your cheery message. Just for a Happy Easter Holiday the company robo called the C-Crew and told them they are making Saturday, Sunday(yes Easter), Monday mandatory 11.5.!

Decker thanks for the explanation I have 1 question as I have not been to meetings in a while, last year our activist Financial Secretary brought charges on the Chairman for $12k dollars of legal bills for the year. I stopped and got a copy of the month's report put out and nearly that much has been paid to the lawyers in the first 3 months. My question because I must have missed it in his latest letters is has he filed charges or said 1 word about this, we are on pace to spend 4x the amount when the activist filed charges.

Today the AD of the IUAW meets with the CAP elected and tells them that our local is in a crisis due to the litigation that has happen over the last 3-4 months. Tells the districts that they need to document and follow up on grievances. What we discussed in our meeting after the meeting is if we had Units or a Chairman that spent more than 20 hours in the plant things would not be in total chaos! Dumbfounded, you are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. In the words of the famous lookout of the Titanic "iceberg dead ahead". Look in the mirror and you will start to understand who is to blame.

Chitown I have seen a copy of the Voluntary Compliance Agreement and it is written broadly. I was not told it is a typo because the candidate that showed it to me had no clue what Board members referred to. Interesting to me is that to have a Compliance Agreement there had to be 2 things, charges and individuals charged. It is illegal for our Union funds to be used to represent an illegal act. My calls to the hall have all gone to voice mail. Lots of questions and no one with answers!

Interesting, the LLM report is upon us when the light comes on and Federal documents are signed(Indictment Papers). Reports are that a certain vote counter is on her way back to finish the vote counting 1 more time but has not worked since last May, the last election. Only question left to be answered and it is coming quickly is who will sign their sentencing papers along with the President and Financial Secretary? D-Day is quickly approaching at Chicago Assembly.

Department of Labor case #zf3267h. As the Captain of the Titanic said we have hit an iceberg abandon ship! Witness F in the case summary knows a lot of details, wonder who has been implicated?

Great points by the respondents on this thread. Decker this topic does get dicey for the IUAW on many fronts though, is it not true that Bob King's office refused a ballot count at Local 551 even though this had never occurred in the history of the local. For Bob King and Settles to claim to want to bring Democracy to the work place and then to refuse to count ballots in a local election raises questions of their ethics to say the least.(And they paid for a recount with the local but never released the results to the members). Another issue is that the GM plant about 100 miles from the VW plant pays the UAW workers less money than current workers at VW. Lastly when the company comes out in favor of a Union as VW did with the UAW as a worker I must wonder what they have in store for me. You are going to trial and the prosecutor is happy about a certain lawyer you have picked, you should pack your bags and get ready for jail or get ready for FPS, concessions, 2 tier pay ect.......

Roadhog and Dumbfounded you 2 should get a room, I will break down what the floor thinks of what is going on. Our President, Chairman, and Units 3 years ago said that we should vote away the right to strike, now they were directed to stand up and propose a Union Dues increase for every UAW member for what? Beef up the strike fund. Dumbfounded you have previous officials on the brain and never address the issues on the thread. My suggestion is for you and Roadhog to start a thread about issues that has no bearing on the membership or take a stab at defending the defenseless, raising dues on members that were told they should give up the right to strike and have not had a raise in 10 years and counting.

What does the new year hold for the IUAW-Ford. Election Chair has spilled beans to DOJ on payoff for vote rigging + recordings of a certain service rep in the room giving backing to the plan, no I am sorry 2 servicing reps. International and Regional. What does this add up to, V.P. of UAW-Chrysler is joined by his former counterpart at V.P. of UAW-Ford. The calls now are fast and furious to cover one's behind but it is 6 months to late! Is this %100 percent, nothing in life is but let's remember 2 Illinois Governors are in jail along with 2 Jackson family members, so if they could not get out of the DOJ it stands to reason this crew is in for a rough ride, along with the members they were sworn to represent, the only innocent individuals out of the whole mess. Power corrupts, absolute corrupts absolutely!

Not to be out done, for the first time in my 12 years at CAP the Chairman went into Labor on Tuesday and a District Rep got 3 days off for cursing at a member after the member yelled and cursed at the rep. Instead of holding the company accountable and putting pressure on them Coby told all the reps that we needed to be more civil and nice. The message that has been to sent to all of us reps is that we should feel as if we work for the company not the members. We have been cursed at by the Chairman on multiple occasions telling us we can be on the team or get the F out and quit, and then we watch him kiss up to the company. This is what happens when family members are set up illegally into jobs they should not have and then what is the Union going to do about it when the company will pull the family members out, just look who is at a desk in Labor down to body shop. Roadhog you may think that getting on this forum is helping you and the leadership with the membership but all it is doing is fanning the flames and confirming to the company that we have the most corrupt and toothless administration in recent memory, but you are right about 1 thing we will find out how good your lawyers are and how deep and how many officials are implicated by an Election Official trying to save their own skin, but the gutting of our credibility will be the price to pay. And just icing on the cake for the company President Carlo Bishop's cousin, the Chairman of HVC gets fired 2 days ago, like the title says "A New Low at Chicago Assembly!"

Has it been confirmed when the vote for the increase in dues will occur with the membership?

Decker, Roadhog has had more changes in direction than my father on our family vacations that he said using a Rand McNally was a waste of time. As you said if the IUAW has made we shall say a threat than as the leaders of the Plant they claim to be A. Tell the membership and present the facts. B. Let the membership decide if it is a bluff. Maybe there is substantial proof that warrants the flip flop(I was against the Union dues increase before I stood up at Sub-Council and voted for a Union dues increase). A point that Roadhog makes that I like you completely agree on is that for our local balance to go from 1.1 million June 23rd to $628 thousand as of the reporting at tomorrows Union meeting, this is the sole responsibility of the President and Financial Secretary and Trustees unless this was due to votes that the Chairman and Units participated in the E-Board. For those of you playing at home our Union balance has dropped $472,000 in 5 months. This report shows that the local for the 5 consecutive month is spending substantially more than we bring in, a recipe for insolvency. I have one question where is the activist aka former Secretary who was hot on a Paint Repairman's tail, o I forgot he signed many of the checks with the President to the Election Chair(was paid for 3 and a half months after the voting stopped), Recording Secretary amongst many others on the gravy train that has put our local on a path of bankruptcy. But Decker as you know all to well their plan is to say bring up things from previous officials months and years previous to move the spotlight off of their mismanagement. Problem with this is that like you Decker the knowledge of the facts and emails that show 5 months of disaster for this local, it becomes more clear why these leaders have voted for and supported destructive decisions that the IUAW told them to support.

How can anyone be surprised that Coby Millender the CAP Chairman would hit a Labor Rep(Aaron Wynn). It was just last year that his cousin and referral got in a fight on the night crew and put the man's eye out. At the time Coby was a Unit and told the member and relative to take care of him and the embarrassment that it caused our plant was enormous. I was shocked at the last meeting during his Good and Welfare Coby told the membership that if they get in a fight he would not help you and don't run to a Unit, now lets see how this works out and what their is left for him to try and save himself. The floor is all the buzz about how it will be open season on the members now that our Chairman hit a Labor representative and how angry they will be at the membership and the lack of cooperation we can expect. One thing that members are hoping is not true is why would Coby run and not come back except the fear of being drug tested by the medical department after an incident such as hitting a Labor Representative.

A terminated employee is brought back due to the merits of the grievance and the company not following the contract. If the new process is to implement a program (FPS) which eliminates work rules and safe guards for over 4000 members to circumvent the process of arguing the merits of the case then we have paid the ransom of the hostage takers. And 9 members are returning Monday well 29 have been fired in the last 2 and a half weeks. This gets worse day by day, but all that the membership needs to do is take a look at the last names of the returning members and who they are related to and connected to and it says it all! A New Low at Chicago Assembly.

Interesting event at work today at Chicago Assembly, the Bargaining Unit approached me and asked how everything was going? I told him that I was upset that he had voted to increase union dues, along with the other Units, President and Chairman. He told me that is why Jimmy Settles was coming in to discuss the issues this Monday thru Wed. I ask why they wanted to throw Jimmy Settles under the bus when 3 weeks ago they had voted for the increase, he said when they voted for the increase they could not hear what they were voting on and did not know the specifics. We got into a heated discussion about how they could vote for a dues increase when we had not had a raise in 9 years and Jimmy Settles did not vote for the increase our officials did and they were the only ones to stand up and do so. What he said next was disturbing, that the former Chairman was in Labor and he was not there but heard a member was being miss-treated and stepped in and security was called on him. I asked him what this had to do with him along with the rest of our officials voting to take more money out of our pockets, and if it were true about the former official standing up for the member is that not what should happen and why one of the officials that wanted to take more money out of our pockets should have been there. I asked if this was the unity he had been preaching by throwing the former Chairman under the bus and why was he acting scared of him, he mumbled something about a re-election and he walked off and this was the end of the discussion, should be an interesting visit this coming week.

Thanks for the heads up, a few of us from the body shop just walked over and the DROTS are still on the wall of the oasis, one member made the joke that dumbfounded is the Bagdad Bob and even when they look at the sheets would deny they are real. Somebody has some explaining to do!

D-Day at Chicago Assembly is upon us! For the younger generation that is not familiar with D-Day, think back to the scene in Titanic where the look out man yells "ice berg dead ahead". About a week ago the Captain of the ship we call Local 551 was made aware that the payoff scheme was blown by a member that was upset about how blatant the corruption was in regards to the vote counter at our local. At this point the paper trail was well documented and already being investigated and well established. The recriminations are going to be swift and widespread, it has already begun. It will be easy for some to say it is another example of how bad things are politically. I look at the upcoming process as a beginning 1st step to a brighter day. Many careers in CAP politics will be washed away and this includes some external to the plant. What we will need is for individuals that have pure intentions and thick skin to step up and run for key Bargaining spots. The only thing worse than the shame we are going through is to allow the corruption to go unchecked, and that is not an option any longer!

My frustration is the organization that stood on the steps of the Supreme Court when it was Bush Vs. Gore and screamed let the votes be counted, when the last Local 551 Informer came out the big article was protect voting rights, let every vote count and then refuses to practice the same thing for Local 551 elections it smells of miss-conduct, even if none exist. So with all due respect to anyone that worries about bad press at Chicago Assembly, that horse has already left the barn. The fact the Department of Labor is at our hall once again and Decker knows the agents by name tells all of us that inaction is a non-option. I am sure the Department of Labor is ready to make an example out of anyone that continues to make this agency look toothless. But as Roadhog and Decker stated why did the Local refuse to just count the ballots and all this would have been a none issue?

Decker you said it best, being at this place, and how serious of a place is that? Word on the street is that a certain Servicing Rep for Chicago Assembly is on the chopping block due to him giving the Election Committee the bright idea to use the idea that an election must be within 1% to have a recount of ballots. So according to his suggestion as long as there is miss-conduct just make sure it is by more than 1% the local is okay. Well the Department of Labor did not buy that either, and 30 years of past practice of always recounting. So to be a fly on the wall at the Region where Tony assured the powers that be that Local 551 was securely back in the control of the Region has to explain his lack of knowledge about the by-laws. Who knows what the true vote totals were on the night of May 31st but common sense suggest that for the Region to get this involved, for the Local President to Union code an Election member going on 2 months after the voting had stopped, it could not have been the total they wanted. The finger pointing has already begun and blaming others to the Federal agents has already taken place, this time the family that has been the center of corruption at 551 for the past 20 years has been left without a chair after the music has stopped. What a way to go out, and a person that said he would change Chicago just may change it in a way he never could imaging, by the outfit that could not shoot straight eating their own!

Well ChiTown when your post popped up on my phone my choices were get angry about a rumor or check it out for myself. This is bad even for Chicago Assembly, our Election Chairperson has been U-Coded since the end of voting as ChiTown claimed. I have served on the election committee and the most that a person was U-Coded was 2 or 3 days. Even for the most naïve individual they have to ask themselves why would a Local President U-Code a member especially the one that just counted the ballots and is suppose to be independent of politics for 8 weeks and counting?

Let's recap where we are now; a Health and Safety representative that had 6 months seniority was appointed with the approval of Darrly Nolan the AD to Jimmy Settles and the Regional Director Ron McInroy. Now after thousands of Union dollars to train the official Local 551 President Carlo Bishop's pick has been removed and Carlo's dad has been let go at a certain persons brothers scrap yard. Local 551 has a slew of charges pending by the Department of Labor in regards to over 100 people not on active roles voting in our election, a refusal to count ballots, not responding within the mandated 90 day window to charges by members. For Local 551 to ever move past the days of corruption and hooking up family and friends the next few weeks must occur and as the young lady who likes to use the term "aint no fun when the rabbit got the gun" she will find out that a fish gets caught when they open their mouth, well 2 fish opened their mouth so to speak. To the new members please come out to vote again and look at the purging of corruption as a needed part of moving forward!