captexpress

Years ago, back when the company was poised to begin the postal contract, management approached our Union with what a majority believed was a substandard offer. We were righteously indignant, made a lot of noise, surveyed, regrouped and then sent our negotiators back with a counter that basically looked like a new section 6 opener. There was much bravado back then, statements like "with or without you" were dredged up (old reference to a statement from the CEO) and generally there was a lot of back slapping going on. Basically, we told management that things had changed, we had our act together after the attainment of our first contract and our counter offer reflected what we were truly worth. In typical form, management looked us dead in the eye (figuratively) and decided to find out exactly what we believed we were worth. They ignored our counter and began immediately to move forward within the confines of the current agreement by immediately instituting Advanced Volunteer and Vacation Buy Back solicitations........which were quickly snapped up by our crews. That practice continues today. Our counter offer was defeated from within.

What I am trying to say here is that when we vote no, our duty to one another does not end there.....it just begins. Simply put, when our Union has a common goal, fee agency must end, personal need must be temporarily put aside for the sake of the greater good and we need to act as a Union.....united. Anything less and we send a very bad message to management and an even worse one to ourselves. I believe that BC negotiated what he believed could be attained based on our past behavior. I admit, I personally would have liked our Union to get out ahead of this with a little more education as to our willingness to make our actions congruent with our desires, but if you truly want to know why we always seem to take the path of appeasement.......look left and right. It's a painful process, but a necessary one. The good news is .....we can change, it's never too late. We were successful with the Captain's Authority issue and we can be successful here. By the way, just for the record, back when we countered the postal offer....we were worth every penny we asked for and more...... and today, since we helped make that management endeavor a success, why would we be worth less?

One last thing to my Union Leadership. I truly appreciate you time, effort and sacrifice, I just ask that you boldly lead us! The weak will follow the strong.