Thinking about Disappointment
Or
The Joe Thing
You may have heard about “the Joe thing”. I have. Here is some information for you to use to make an informed decision, should you need to. There are petitions being circulated to start a recall.
The Joe here is Joe DiNicola, President of SEIU 503, OPEU. Joe is also a public employee who came out of the Department of Revenue, where he was the local president about 10 years, I believe. This is the Joe of ‘President Joe’s Journal’. He was elected president of the statewide local of public employees here in Oregon, by us, the members. He is about halfway through his second 2 year term.
After his second election, Joe DiNicola requested payment for over 2500 hours of comp time. This is the primary act that is getting so much attention. Here are some of the reasons why.
* Joe is currently working as the president of SEIU 503, OPEU. Therefore, the payment for those hours of comp time would have to be paid by the Union. The figure would be in the 6-figure range.
* Many folks, including past presidents, consider time spent outside of the 40 hour workweek to be unpaid, volunteer time; part of the job. No past president has asked to be paid for comp time. These same folks believe that most Union activism happens on a volunteer basis. For these reasons people believe that precedent is in place. Many are angry that the current president wants to be paid for time that others volunteer.
* SEIU 593, OPEU has sought counsel from labor experts who seem to agree that precedent and our constitution and bylaws do not require the Union to pay this claim for comp time.
* Also, the constitution and bylaws do not allow for an officer to be an adversary of the Union. This is relevant because Joe DiNicola has now filed suit against 503 and the Department of Revenue for payment of the comp time. This lawsuit places Joe in an adversarial role with our Union by definition.
Those are a few of the issues surrounding the Joe thing.
As president of Local 730, I believe that I am to work on issues affecting the work days and nights of ODOT employees. It disappoints me that my Union has to spend time and money on this comp time litigation. I consider it a distraction from the important work of Our Union.
As a member of the SEIU OPEU 503 Board of Directors, I can tell you that several hours of the board meetings are lost on this issue directly or indirectly. Board members have taken sides and almost every other item before the board is seen through this lens.
As the president of ODOT Local 730 I represent you and your views. If you want to express those views to me you can do so at my e-mail account: odotmac@hotmail.com. Or you may respond here at the blog.
mac
Cameron M. McGinnis
TMS2 Meacham Section
ODOT Local 730, President
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Thinking about Disappointment
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8 comments:
As I am not a member of Local 730, I do not feel it appropriate that I elaborate on my thoughts regarding the president's claim and actions in recent months. If I need to vent I turn to joemustgo.info or I send emails around the state to various contacts. However, I am glad to see this piece by Cam as well as the invitation for members to weigh in on this issue.
I anxiously await some comments.
Another Board member,
Star Holmberg
DD 3S, employed at the the University of Oregon
We all know that hard decisions have been made by all involved. In order to get something you, and no one before you ever had, you had to take a stand. I guess that is what Joe is doing. That being said, I don't agree with how he has gone about this fight. Particularily now that he is suing Local 503. Once he made that decsion, he should have stepped down as president and allowed the VP to step up into that position until the issue is resolved or the end of his term, whichever occurs first. This battle is having an affect on SEIU/OPEU as a whole and I agree with Cam that it detracts from the work we need to accomplish within our local.
Thanks for listening.
That is the purpose of this blog; to here what our members have to say.
Thanks to Troy Barnard, our 503 statewide organizer who created this weblog.
The only question I have about the Joe Thing is why on earth doesn't the BOD take a vote and boot him?
That process is underway. Just like any representative governing body our Union has a recall process. There are people in nearly every agency collecting signatures. Once a certain percentage of members signatures have been collected a recall election can be held. mac
I am a member of the retiree group, and shortly after the executive session in which President DiNicola announced his plans to stick it to the union I met him at a bargaining conference. I was there as a driver for several bargaining members.
I call him Overtime Joe now, mostly I just use the initials, and he sat down to discuss the matter with me. I told him if he wanted to discuss it, he could do it via eMail, that way I could quote him for all to see. I also let him know I was very disappointed in him. He responded with, "I will prevail!"
Since then I have actively worked with several members of the Mid-Valley Recall Squad to gather enough signatures to have a recall election. My fantasy is seeing OJ explain his self-enrichment scheme to his fellow members.
The only question I have about the Joe Thing is why on earth doesn't the BOD take a vote and boot him?
It's a political decision. I believe the Board has this authority according to the rules, not all agree. But one thing seems for sure, OJ will surely sue if such action were taken. So how much money do you want to spend on legal expenses for protecting this union from such attacks?
Plus, I believe it is much better to get the members involved in this. It is their union, they need to know what's going on. Plus they need to pay attention to what their officers are doing on their behalf. And, I like going out talking to the members about this as I collect their signatures.
By the way, everyone involved in this recall effort are doing it on their own dime - no union or employer funds are being used to support this effort.
There is a resolution before the 2008 General Council called Membership Affairs #2,
http://tinyurl.com/54ujxg
designed to promote a careful discussion of this issue in a trial setting. It will take a 2/3s vote of the General Council to have this discussion in the least disruptive way possible. Discuss this with your delegates.
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