Now that I have caught up on my sleep (some 13 hours!!!), I wanted to share my experiences of this years General Council. I am very proud of the members who served on committees this year; Mike Scott on Employee Representation, Shirley Wait on Constitution and Bylaws and Donna McKeever on Membership Affairs. They did an awesome job considering the resolutions they received to cover. There were over 70 resolutions presented to the five committees this year. Constitution and Bylaws had the lions share of 24 and Membership Affairs had the next highest of 17. Both of these committees took the longest to get through their resolutions. Mostly due to amending the language submitted. They also had some of the most contencious resolutions submitted. Many resolutions were trying to deal with Joe Dinicola and his past actions. The Union attorney made it very clear that resolutions can only deal with future issues and if any of the resolutions past as written could be used for Joe to sue the union again. Since the union has already spent some $300,000 on the lawsuits Joe has brought, no one moved any of the resolutions that could cost us even more money in defending the union against Joe.
There were some resolutions passed that will clean up language in the C & B's or the Administrative Policies and Procedures (AP&P) as they are practices that are currently taking place. Not much discussion took place over those resolutions. There were others that had several discussions, both in committee meetings and on the floor of the council. Due to rules established and voted on at the beginning of the council, no dicussions concerning the resolutions lasted over 30 minutes. This was a major improvement over the council from 2006 where one topic was discussed for over two and a half hours! Fortunately, not all resolutions were brought out of the committees to the floor. Even so, there were still 59 resolutions that were brought to the floor for consideration. The rest were held in committees, which basically means they died in committee.
There was great discussion concerning a Member Resource Center. This center is currently being used by Home Care to assist their members to get answers concerning their contract and help stewards with guidence on issues. This center will now be looked at by a steering committee to expand in phases to other SEIU members. Phase one is scheduled to be online no later than September 30, 2009. It is anticipated this project will take five years to be fully implemented for all members of SEIU.
As this was only my second time representing ODOT at General Council, I only had my previous experience to draw on and compare to this years event. While at times General Council can be a frustrating event, it is an experience that I enjoyed and will likely run to be a delegate again for the next council and the next council. It is my desire to continue to do the work of our members and represent ODOT in the union and the business of running the union. Thank you for voting me back in as a delegate.
Thanks, Mike
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I've been attending the meetings of the General Council since 1976, and I hope to never see another one like this - which was scared stupid by "Overtime Joe's" legal antics.
A couple examples, both involving the C&B committee. The rules provide that the author or a delegate from the sponsoring body be allowed to open and close debate on a sponsored resolution. I told the sergeant of arms where I would be when any of the resolutions I authored came up, and when one did and the sergeant of arms said he'd go get me - he knew where I was - he was told by the chair of the C&B committee to not bother. A clear violation of the rules just adopted earlier that same day.
The committee held C&B #5 in committee, a more or less housekeeping motion to establish a disciplinary procedure for the whole union like the one the Board adopted for itself, with one exception. If there's an offense occurring in a meeting a trial would not be needed - it would only require a trial for those offenses occurring outside a meeting. The committee held this resolution in committee and erroneously reported to the floor it wasn't needed because of the Board's action. That's not true, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised 10th edition outranks the Board's action, and Chapter XX governs the Lady's Home Auxiliary the same as the Union. I believe we have different needs.
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