Another Bogus Protest in the Making

Losers always claim rigged elections.They always seem to refuse to accept when the members reject them. Apparently the Alan "chicken little" Lamb and the United Slate is coming up with another conspiracy theory to explain their pending election loss. They are accusing the Members First Slate of "stealing" the election because their candidate mailing was not sent to the same number of members that were mailed ballots. They are implying that the Members First Slate mailing that was sent to the entire membership was sent to a larger group of members than theirs. The United Slate is asking their supporters to come to the union meeting tomorrow to accuse Randy Brown and the Members First Slate of "stealing" the election.To save their (small) group of supporters the trip and to save the rest of us from having our annual Christmas luncheon from be disrupted by their shenanigans, here is a quick summary of the TRUE facts:

1. All three slates mailers that were mailed to all Local 728 members were sent to a smaller number of members than ballots that were mailed out because mailing houses are required to run addresses through a national database of address changes and remove undeliverable mail pieces.This resulted in less election campaign mail pieces being sent than ballots. The reason for this is that Local 728 is required by the Local bylaws to mail ballots to every single member at their last known mailing address so the Local 728 election committee instructed the mailing house to send ballots to all addresses regardless of whether or not they appeared as bad addresses.

2. The Members First Slate did four mailings to Local 728 members. Three targetted mailings and one mailing to the entire membership.The Members First Slate membership- wide mailing was mailed to the exact same number of members and on the exact same day as the United Slate using the exact same membership list.We know the United Slate's numbers because they have made them public in the course of their conspiracy mongering. Mike Drummond's slate did the membership-wide mailing at a later date.

It is silly to think that one of the most reputable mailing houses in metro Atlanta would risk their reputation to conspire with a candidate to rig a mailing. If the United Slate chooses to pursue this waste of members dues money with yet another bogus protest, the Members First Slate with present all evidence necessary to expose them for the desperate , paranoid, LOSERS they are.

Quit Whining!

Alan Lamb (or at least his blogger) keeps whining about how President Hoffa's response to the bogus protest from Robert Wood got on this blog. Well maybe because the slate who has the (bogus) protest filed against them is entitled to a copy of the ruling? Duh. And the fact that Alan Lamb's slate was lying about how long one of their candidate was a member is not private or confidential information. Quit trying to project your dishonesty onto other people Alan. We all know be exposed as a liar is embarrasing, just deal with it.

Drummond Slate Busted!

While Alan Lamb and the United Slate have been busy spreading weird rumors and covering up for their own dishonesty, Mike Drummond and co. have upgraded from the "Will Say Anything to get Elected" Slate to the "Will Do ANYTHING to Get Elected" Slate.

Several members at the UPS Pleasantdale hub have reported to the Members First Slate that Union Steward and Mike Drummond supporter Patrick Garner has been collecting ballots from UPS Pleasantdale members and CASTING THEIR VOTES FOR THEM.

The Members First Slate is gathering statements and will be filing a protest against this violation of the election rules, Local 728 bylaws,the International Constitution, and THE LAW that could potentially disqualify Mike Drummond and his slate. Stay Tuned.

More on the Weirdness

More weirdness from the United Slate:


Jimi (the non truth) uses his office to exploit members private information for personal reasons. Remember his post of R T P S candidate Woods address being posted on his untrue facts blog. He also can't even get a members eligibility letter correct either. Jimi sent out an eligibility letter to a United Slate member saying he was eligibility to run for office then 18 days later said oops I was wrong.

Um...dude A pdf got posted of a ruling by President Hoffa on a bogus protest filed by Robert Wood.As soon as Robert Wood objected, it was fixed. Let it go.

How in the world to you try to turn the fact around that the United Slate was LYING about the years their trustee candidate had as a member and he ended up being ineligible. Never mind the fact that Alan was this guys steward and Business Agent for at least a decade and still put him on the slate.I believe they call that projecting in the world of psychology.And Never mind the fact that Alan continues to lie about his own years as a member of Local 728.

I guess the high number of non-members at Alan's center just made it too confusing. After all, the Acworth Center has the LOWEST membership level of any UPS facility in the entire local.

United Slate Gets Weird

Alan Lamb and Co. are acting a little weird. They are now spreading a rumor that the picture to the right of the Members First Slate Get Out the Vote rally was a staged photo at Manuel's Tavern that inflated the size of the crowd by incorporating restaurant patrons into the photo.

What in the world are they talking about?

A. The meeting/rally was not held at Manuel's. It was held at C&J's, a bar and grilll near the union hall.

B. The people in the restaurant were 100% Members First Slate supporters since we had the place reserved for an exclusive event.There were around 100 people there, suck it up.

C. Who would think to make this stuff up? Get a life.

Is this desperation or delerium?

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Well Alan Lamb and company have finally decided to grow a pair and call Mike Drummond out on his lies. They say the the Drummond Slate has been caught being dishonest "again". Intresting that they say "again" since this is the first time that Alan and company have pointed out any dishonesty on the part of Mike Drummond.

Alan calling Drummond out on his mountain of lies is pretty rich coming from Lamb. He asks how many meetings did Drummond attend (answer zero in at least five years,maybe more) when Alan decided to stop coming to union meetings or any other union functions after the members rejected him in 2007 until he decided to announce for office in March of this year.

Honesty isn't Alan's strong hand either. Alan claims on his website to be a 30 year Teamster. He seems to have his union membership confused with his seniority at UPS. You see Alan has a seniority date of 1980, but wasn't sworn in to Local 728 until 1988. Alan work for EIGHT YEARS as a freeloader at UPS! Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, we do live in a right to work state after all, but for some reason Alan has chosen to LIE about the length of his membership in our union.

Alan also chose to lie about how long one of his candidates was a member. He claimed his candidate for Trustee Richard Haas was a 12 year Teamster but the reality was that he had only been a member since May of 2009.

I guess if your looking to vote for a slate that actually has the truth on their side there's only one way to vote.

One More Time on the Money

The United Slate folks still can't figure out this money thing, so here it is as plain as I can make(and i'm also typing this real slow for good measure):

0ver $500,000 in grience wins at UPS
+
Over $500,000 in grievance wins in Freight
+
Several tens of thousand of dollars in miscellaneous "white paper" contract grievance wins.

=Over ONE MILLION DOLLARS

Let's talk money

Apparently the United Slate is confused by some numbers wev've put out in regards to grievance awards. Flyers that have been distrubuted by Members First in freight and UPS each make reference to over $500,000 in grievance awards. In our previous post we pointed out that Local 728 has won over one million dollars for our members over the last 3 years. So which is it they ask? So here are the rough numbers broken down. In both Freight and UPS Local 728 have have won over $500,000 in grievance settlements for various contract violations and backpay. In "white paper" (waste,school bus , transit etc.) contracts, an undetermined several tens of thousands of doillars have been won, but the specific amount is harder to determine. Whatever the amount, it exceeds one million dollars. Still a fact.

Facts are Pesky Things

With the ballots being mailed today in the Local 728 officers election, the mudslinging is sure to hit a fever pitch. In anticipation of the coming storm of untruths, here on some FACTS that are absolutely true and verifiable:

IT IS A FACT that the overwhelming majority of grievances processed by Local 728 are won in favor of the grievant.

IT IS A FACT that Local 728 has won over ONE MILLION DOLLARS in grievance pay for for Local 728 members over the last 3 years.

IT IS A FACT that Local 728 has reversed a 20 year membership decline under Randy Brown.Had the layoff in freight not happened, Local 728 would have over 8,000 members. As it stands though, Local 728 has seen a net gain of 1300 members due to organizing and aggresive membeship drives.

IT IS A FACT that Local 728 has a 95% win rate in arbitrations.

IT IS A FACT that Local 728 has worked in partnerships with the International union on a number of campaigns including organizing, political action, and corporate campaigns.(ie. the notion that Local 728 is somehow estranged from the International union is bunk)

If anyone tells you any different, THEY ARE A LIAR.

Local 728 Members Hit Back Against Lies

The Drummond Slate Goes Over the Edge

Elections are about the free exchange of the ideas and FACTS. When one side decides to resort to outright falsehoods, it is the duty of all parties to take them to the political woodshed and chastise them for dishonesty.

The Drummond Slate has consistently been willing to resort to fabrications and falsehoods during this campaign. Recent actions of the Drummond Slate have moved them from the catagory of petty liars to people willing to say anything to get elected, even if it means damaging our union. Yesterday, Mike Drummond's slate posted the above image and caption on their Facebook page.In the post the Drummond slate acuses President Randy Brown of "Randy Brown closed our Savannah Office supposedly to save money and used the savings to funds his Campaign for Members First Slate."

Making such a statement crosses the line. Falsely accusing a union officer of illegal activity without a shred of evidence should bring the accuser's credibility as a candidate into question. Local 728 has been through multiple routine audits from both the International Union and the Independent Review Board without even a hint of any sort of impropriety. Not only is spreading misinformation like this poisonous in a campaign, it also undermines members faith in their union as an organization and will potentially be used in misinformation campaigns by union busters during organizing campaigns.

Local 728 members deserve an answer from Mike Drummond as to whether he endorses spreading lies about our union. He hasn't been willing to withdraw and own up to his other lies, so this writer won't be holding his breath.

"I said What?!"

If you are entering or leaving work and see the "Disunited" slate campaigning at your gate, watch out for cameras. If you are not careful you may end up as a talking head on their website listed as one of their supporters. To make matters worse, you will probably labeled with a quote you may have never said such as,"I support Alan Lamb and the United Slate 100%." While on the campaign trail, several members have complained to Members First campaigners that they had had conversations with various "United" Slate candidates and had their picture taken while they were talking. Their pictures were then put on the United Slate's website and a completely made up quote was put underneath their picture. I guess it's understandable for the United Slate feels like they need to manufacture support (they sorely need it), but it isn't making them any friends.For the record, everyone who appears on the Members First supporter page has signed a petition committing to support the Members First Slate.

Drummond Slate Comes Clean On One Lie

A screenshot of the Drummond Slate admitting they lied on facebook...Priceless.

Drummond Slate Opens Up a Can of Worms

All I have to say is OUCH. Scroll down for responses.Welcome to the world of Facebook Brother Drummond.

Sour grapes anyone?

Mike Drummond has referred in an email to the Members First campaigning at Local 728 General Membership Meetings as a "dog and pony show". By dog and pony show he must mean the ovewhelming showing of majority support showed for Randy Brown and the members First Slate at the meetings. Maybe if Mike had come to a union meeting over the last five years he would know and have more support from members who actually attend the meetings.

Keepin 'em Honest

You can tell that it's getting closer to election time when you notice the dramatic uptick of outright lies being told to the members through the various campaign mediums. The most serious offenders are always the slates who attempt to substitute mudslinging for a record of accomplishments.After all when you figure out that most members actually don't ever contemplate "giving up on your union" (from Drummond's website), You have to resort to slinging mud.

The liar of the week award goes to Mike Drummond's slate.They have not only told the most public lies this week, they also have the dubious distinction of telling the most lies per candidate. Here is a refresher course for those readers who don't make a habit of reviewing there literature or website.

This one has been around a while but it is truly a whopper. Mike Drummond has this in his slate's platform:

REDUCE PART TIMER’S DUES: This is not a new idea and was accomplished at Local 728 in the past. It was eliminated 20 years ago. The current rate of 2.5 times the hourly wage is financially burdensome due to part-time limited work hours. I would propose a special dispensation from the IBT to reduce P/T dues. Let’s put money back into the pockets of hard working, underpaid part-timers.

Mike apparently either hasn't read the Teamsters constitution, or is being deliberately dishonest in a cynical attempt to trick UPS part timers into voting for him to get a break in their dues. You be the judge. Firstly, the Teamsters constitution says:

ART. X, SEC. 3

Effective July 1, 2002, the current rate of dues for
all members whose hourly earnings rate is more than
eleven dollars ($11.00) shall be adjusted, based upon
the hourly earnings rate or hourly flight pay at base
rate or monthly guarantee in effect on that date, as
follows:
(i) dues for members employed in an industry in
which there is a legal right to strike, other than members
employed as flight attendants or pilots in the
airline industry, shall be increased by one-half times the
hourly earnings rate; thereby establishing a minimum
dues rate of two and one-half (2.5) times the hourly earnings
rate;

Now Mike covers his rear by saying:

I would propose a special dispensation from the IBT to reduce P/T dues.

Translation- "I will ask the International to reduce part-timers dues." What Mike isn't telling people is that the International is not under any obligation to grant any dispensation.Tell UPS part-timers the TRUTH Mike, YOU CAN'T REDUCE THEIR DUES AND EVEN IF YOU COULD, IF YOU GOT ELECTED YOU WOULDN'T. You might lose a few votes but you would still have your integrity.

The next to "liar,liar pant on fire" untruths that have popped up on Mike Drummond's slate's Facebook page that was created this week. The First lie was in the very first post to the Slate's page:

Ask Randy Brown and Jimi Richards why they walked-out of the YRC Meeting in Dallas, TX this week before all the information was presented.

Considering that No one from Mike's slate was present at the two-man meeting, he truly has no clue what happened. But for the record, President Randy Brown and Jimi Richards attended the two-man meeting in it's entirety and voted to send the proposal to the members for an up or down vote. They also attended a regional breakout after the two-man meeting for an hour (where most of the same information was repeated) and then left to catch their flights back to Atlanta to be back in time for contract negotiations the next morning.

Next, whoever controls posts on Mike's Facebook page says:

Since 1980's Local 728 have conducted their local elections (nominations in Sept and early November the votes were counted and the election was completed. This year 2010 Randy Brown Executive Board has delayed the Local Election by two months. Question? Why has the current Local 728 Executive Board lead by Randy Brown is delaying the Local Election into the Christmas Peak Season.

Jimi Richard's responded to this one and it pretty much speaks for itself:



Brother Drummond,

You recently wrote on your Facebook page.....

"Since 1980's Local 728 have conducted their local elections (nominations in Sept and early November the votes were counted and the election was completed. This year 2010 Randy Brown Executive Board has delayed the Local Election by two months. Question? Why has the current Local 728 Executive Board lead by Randy Brown is delaying the Local Election into the Christmas Peak Season."

Brother Drummond:

If you took the time to read the By-Laws of Local 728, which have been as they are since Brother Mathis last updated them in 1973, you would have found out that Article VII of The By-Laws state..." Meeting as hereinafter established for nominations of Officers shall be held in November. Election shall be held not less than thirty (30) days after nominations have been closed. Nominations shall be held in one central location"

These By-Laws were read to the members April 14,1973 and were voted on and approved by the members in the General Membership Meeting held on May 19, 1973, and this can be found in Article XXXVII of The Local By-Laws.

The Election dates were announced at the General Membership Meeting on October 9,2010 in which your slate, along with anothers were in attendance. Not one question was asked by anyone concerning these dates.

Sister Vicki Bagby brought this up in a meeting at the Local office and as God as my witness she was told that the Election would be held per the Local 728 By-Laws in which I took an oath to abide by and to uphold when I was first elected as Secretary-Treasurer of Local 728.

This election is being held within the By-Laws of Local 728, and is "not being delayed" by Randy Brown and the Local 728 Executive Board...plain and simple.

I told Sister Bagby that the IBT rejected anymore requests to hold the elections any earlier in a letter to the Local in 2007. I have offered to let her review these letters, and as of this date she has not took the time to do so.....had she of done that, then you would not be having to post false information to the members of this Local to try and conjure up some conspiracy theory to confuse the members of Local 728.

They deserve better than that.

Fraternally

Jimi Richards

The bottom line is, how can you believe a slate whose campaign is 3/4 based on minforming the members?

The case of the MISSING Decert Campaign

Since their website went online, the "United Slate" has had a blurb on their site called "News the Incumbents Don't Want You to Know". The first "news" they reported was " Savannah First Student Members Call for Decertification Vote" which has a link to this transcript that was broadcast on WTOC Savannah.

The only problem with this "news" is that there is no decert vote...AND the "members" who were featured in the story were seven management suck-ups sent to disrupt a union meeting. The SEVENTY members inside continued to conduct a business meeting while the scabs talked to the media called to come there by First Student management.It should be no suprise that Three of the seven scabs are now in management.

The newscast that night was a management inspired stunt and it didn't work.After they had organized, First Student members fought for and won a first Teamster contract that contained solid wage increases and a number of improvements.The majority of First Student members know that. First Student members continue to improve their lives with a Teamster contract and are now getting ready to negotiate a renewal agreement.

Of course the real problem is why would someone running for union office publish this story? You would think they would at least call the Local out of concern if they heard that a decert vote was going on at a Local 728 shop. At the very least one would hope that someone from the "United Slate" would at least talk to some First Student members to hear more about what happened. No such luck.

Instead the "United Slate" has spread disunity by using management misinformation to score political points. Bravo guys.

Bogus Protest Denied

And it keeps getting worse for the Randy Brown hater club.

Robert Wood, candidate for Recording Secretary with Mike Drummond's slate filed charges with the Local 728 Executive Board against President Randy Brown for the publishing of "Meeting the Challenge: A Report on the State of Your Union". The report by President Randy Brown was published in May by Local 728 to communicate with Local 728 members on the challenges and opportunities facing Local 728 before either candidate had publicly declared temselves as a candidate. Wood aasserted that the publication was improper and constituted campaign material paid for by Local 728. Paying for campaign material with union funds is both illegal and a violation of the International Constitution. Unfortunately for Robert his opinion didn't seem to agree with the facts or established standards of what constitutes campaign material.

Wood's charges were reviewed by the Local 728 Executive Board and were dismissed on the grounds that the charges were improper because they were not filed as a pre election protest as required by the International Constitution. Robert Wood appealed the decision to General President Hoffa, who not only upheld the decision of the Local 728 Executive Board to dismiss the charges, but went further to say:

I have also reviewed the publication in question and have determined that Brother Brown's article does not constitute campaign materials. Thus, even had you alleged a pre-election violation, it would have been denied.

A pre election protest was also filed on the same subject by Mike Drummond, but his protest was dismissed by the Executive board because it was filed untimely (you better learn the IBT Constitution if your going to be President buddy). Alan Lamb's slate has stated on there website that they have filed charges with everyone short of the FBI, but no protest has been filed to date, just a whiney letter to Joint Council 75 President Ken Wood cc'ed to Local 728.

These guys obviously have issues dealing with the reality that a sitting President of a union has a right to communicate with the members.

Unconscionable?

Mike Drummond has posted some "news" on his website accusing Local 728 Business Agent and Trustee Tim Chaney of doing bargaining unit work (ie. picking up some boxes off the floor and putting them on a belt). He ends the so called "news" with this:

It is unacceptable for company supervisors to take money out of your pocket but having your own union representative taking money out of your pocket and food off your table is unconscionable.

What's "unconscionable" is that Mike Drummond watches supervisors REALLY doing bargaining unit work every night and has never filed a grievance on it the entire time that the midnight sort has been in existence at Forest Park. Maybe if Mike had attended a union meeting in the last five years he would know how to file one.

And this guy wants to be our President...

"Disunited" Slate Flunks Math

The grossly misnamed "United Slate" have been busy peddling false rumors (shocking!) about Local 728's newest Business Agent, Matt Higdon. The rumor is that Randy Brown hired Matt "because it's an election year" so Randy Brown can "increase visiblity" during an election year. So let's do the math since apparently they can't count:

Local 728 UPS Business Agents prior to Matt Higdon being hired:
Jim Higginbotham
Donnie Dixon
Eric Thornton
Walt Neal
Randall Andrews
Tim Chaney
Eric Robertson
Robert Wood(part-time Feeder Agent)

Local 728 UPS Business Agents after Matt Higdon was hired:
Jim Higginbotham
Donnie Dixon
Eric Thornton
Walt Neal
Matt Higdon
Tim Chaney
Eric Robertson

That's 8 Business Agents before Matt was hired and 7 after he was hired.Matt was hired to replace Randall Andrews who resigned to take another job. The reduction in agents is due to Robert Wood resigning. So Local 728 now has 7 full-time UPS agents. Just in case any "dis-united" slate supporters reading this still don't get it, 7 agents is less than 8. So the rumor that Randy Brown is hiring additional agents just for an election year falls flat on it's face. Thankfully, now UPS feeder drivers have a full time agent and Matt Higdon is doing a great job for Local 728 UPS members.

How Would They Know?

Well the Randy Brown hater club has come straight out the gate lying. Both of the monday morning quarterbacks have published lies and distortions on their websites as soon as they were online. The enormity of the dishonesty of the other two slates is too much b.s. to put in one blogpost. So I have decided to tackle two today. I will post additional responses to the misinformation campaign as quickly as possible.

Mike Drummond's slate has put these items in their platform:

INCREASE MEMBERSHIP: We live in the largest city in the south, a national hub for rail, air and trucking transportation. Over the last 25 years, metro Atlanta has more than doubled its population, while our membership has remained essentially flat. It is my intention to educate the population and recruit new members. There is tremendous opportunity to reach future members throughout Georgia. Building our numbers equals building our strength!

Houston we have a problem! This guy seems to have no clue that Local 728 has grown by more than 1,000 (that's one-thousand, count the zeros) members since Randy Brown has taken office. Much of this has been through aggressive organizing both as Local projects utilizing Local 728 staff and volunteers and in coordinated campaigns with the International union.Randy Brown has also dedicated resources to increasing our membership at existing bargaining units.HERE is an example. And HERE is another. And HERE is one more.If you any doubt's that Drummond's platform items are either willful ignorance or blatant dishonesty, check the Department of Labor website and look up Local 728's membership numbers for the last five years.

And then you have this:

IMPROVE RELATIONSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS (IBT): Local 728 has disconnected itself from the IBT. We need to work closely with and in support of the IBT.

It's ironic that when I first read this garbage I was on my way to the union hall and the IBT Eastern Region Organizing Director was sitting in the conference room at the Local meeting with Ben Speight the Local 728 Organizing Director. But here are some more examples of how Local 728 has not only not "disconnected" ourselves from the international, but actually works in a productive and cooperative way with our International at every opportunity, like Here and HERE and Here and HERE and HERE and HERE. Also, the fact that General President Hoffa and Southern Region Vice President Ken Wood will be coming to our local THIS SUNDAY to participate in a rally to support Local 728's campaign at Coke might be another hint that Local has not "disconnected " itself from our International union.Maybe Mike Drummond would know about some of these joint efforts if he had come to a union meeting before he decided to run for office.

It's Election Time at Local 728!

So it's election time in our Local and the B.S. is already flying. Randy Brown and the Members First Slate don't have the time to chase down and respond to every lie and half truth that the desperate challengers put out to the membership. This blog will attempt to respond to the mudslinging as soon as we are aware of them. This election Local 728 members will have a one-stop location where they can get the truth. There is no greater disinfectant than the light of day,so stay tuned.