Thanks Tony for putting in the time and effort to share.

I use your input to help me form opinions.

You have some good points. I see there are reasons why no poll was taken. DW knew the answer he would get and wanted to do the right thing, as he saw it, regardless of the uproar. It does take leadership to do that.

But there are things I don't like about this process of chairing a union that you call leadersip. Moving scope money into VEBA without input. Claiming the reason not to increase newhire training pay was that effort was better spent working HARD to get better retirement bennies and GRID penalties. All I ever got was the "peripheral" issues just weren't going to be solved at the expense of the most important ones. BS.

I really don't think it's mostly about leadership. That was the military. This is a union of supposedly equal members. An association if you will. There are going to be big fights amongst the members that need to be solved to one side's or no side's satisfaction. We are now experiencing the older members trying to throw the junior folks under the bus before they get thrown under the bus. It's about trying to get one over on the other guy. If you aren't savvy enough, you may buy into some pretty good stories about why things are why they are. Sadly, that is often how union politics is run. We shouldn't be fooled by claims of leadership and plausible other reasons for the decisions. They are what they are....using union power to the benefit of one group over another in the association.


I would support a pollster. After the polls decisions still have to be made. And they will be made.

I support your junior candidate idea. I think they would bring some fresh blood to the process. I thought agency shop was a good idea. Now I'm not so sure. How do the junior guys (anyone?) exercise their rights when the "leaders" identify (finally reveal?) their most important ideas and decisions after an election and not before? Why choose to surprise us all with this info and claim an emergency? I don't just trust, I would like a full explanation before I offer that. We aren't in negotiations and we certainly aren't charging up the hill to take it from the enemy.

With all due respect, maybe DW just made a mistake in how he approached us. But now it looks like damage control. He could have come accross a little more apologetic to the junior folks and explained why no poll before there was a demand for one. Maybe that's not his style? I don't know.

What I do know---This was no emergency until DW waited long enough to try to make it so. That makes us all suspicious.