Election Slate

Wikipedia describes a Slate (elections) as follows: A slate is a group of candidates that run in multi-seat or multi-position elections on a common platform.  The common platform may be because the candidates are all members of a political party, have the same or similar policies, or some other reason.

And now for the rest of the story:

A few years ago, there were a group of members that decided to run as a slate at Convention.  At that time, it was obvious that the direction of the MGEU was headed off the rails in a direction that our founding members would never have condoned.  Our president was on a personal vendetta against everyone that she felt had wronged her in some manner.  There were a couple of firings and when questioned by board members they also suffered the wrath of this president.  What is of note however is that when this group of members put their names forward they were slammed by our president and her friends for running a slate.  These members never said otherwise, they acknowledged that they were running as a slate.  What was never acknowledged by our president and her friends is that these were very capable people whose only goal was to put the MGEU back on track as a Labour Union and not the unscrupulous cluster of dogmatic individuals that we have today.

We do know that the president has actively solicited from her group of supporters a slate of individuals (Team Stay the Same) to run at Convention 2018.  A slate??  The very same thing she and her friends criticized these other members of doing.  How disingenuous is this?  Wake up MGEU brothers and sisters, can we possibly afford another two years of this regime.  Remember that it will soon be time for the Civil Service to bargain with an 8% decrease in staffing proposed and a set amount of increases to be had.  Then there are all of the other groups within the MGEU that will also be up for negotiations.  Look how well this unscrupulous cluster of dogmatic provincial officers, has done for us so far.  Do we really want more of the same?  Let’s elect some individuals that would like to move forward and are prepared to do what it takes to get there.  There is no room for Team Stay the Same in our future!

As noted in the previous blog, our present forth vice-president wasted no time in coming forward for the position of first vice-president when our current first vice-president announced that he would be putting his name forward to run as president.  We now know who will be running for the forth vice-president position and as predicted it is a friend and supporter of our current president.  We will not say that this individual is not capable of being our forth vice-president but his political stripe would indicate that he may not be as labour friendly as we would like.  Again, this individual is from rural Manitoba and will not change the fact that Winnipeg has absolutely no representation at the provincial level of our Union.  The new Constitution was redesigned to insure there would be a fair representation by population throughout Manitoba.  How soon we forget.

We noted that on Steinbach online Saturday May 12, 2018 that our president was making some comments related to the upcoming rationalization votes.  Interesting read for a number of reasons, but specifically the last two paragraphs.  Please refer to Steinbach online as we are not going to reprint what she said, however she claims that she has talked to our members in the Southern Health Authority and that they have made it clear that they want to remain with the MGEU.  Well they voted for CUPE the last time because they couldn’t stand her bullying tactics, we hope they are reading the blog and find out nothing has changed.  Maybe these comments were a figment of the president’s imagination just like many other comments she makes.

As we know there has been no indication made at this time that there will be a redo of the previous rationalization votes conducted in 2011-2012 for rural Manitoba.  This is the only area where the MGEU was not successful as noted in a previous blog and for the reasons stated at that time.  We know there is only one local of MGEU members from Health Care remaining in the Southern Health Authority and they number around 80 members.  Hardly a resounding endorsement for the MGEU.  Your subterfuge is astounding!

PS: It would appear that the Trades Director did not get the memo regarding who of the president’s friends would be running for which provincial table officer’s positions at Convention 2018.  Word has it that this fellow declared his intent to run for the forth vice-president position.  Shouldn’t be long now until we hear he has rescinded his intentions.  Or maybe there is beginning to be dissension in the ranks! We now know that there are at least 4 members confirmed as running for forth vice-president! Let’s hope at least one of them is from Winnipeg.  What do you say?

Anyone hear what the outcome was for the MacDonald Youth Services group that went out on strike awhile back?  This is the group that our president made go back to work.  Information appears to be hard to get regarding this group, but never fear we will persevere and bring you the information as we get it. Must be something fishy going on if we can’t get the information we are seeking at a faster rate than we have.

 

 

 

Nepotism

The dictionary describes nepotism as follows: the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.  Synonyms: favoritism, bias, partiality, partisanship.

Now for the rest of the story

There are presently two Board Members from the MGEU who for various reasons are not presently working at their regular jobs.

We are going to explore what we know about these two situations and would like you to ask your own questions.

We know the Area 5 Director has been off work, on a Workers Comp Claim for at least a year if not longer.  We are hearing rumblings from Area 5 that they are not happy with this present situation as they do not believe that they are being fairly represented by someone who is not working.  We do know that the Area 5 Director has an office at the MGEU as well as a parking spot?  What is he doing?  Area 5 we believe that your concerns are more than justified.  We do know that he has driven this president around the province to her Meet and Greets.  Check out his Facebook page to see pictures of his latest culinary activities around the province.  We also know he has been seconded to work on the Rationalization votes.    We would like to know how he is being paid and did the MGEU Board give permission to hire him and if  he is unable to do his regular work activities how is he managing to sit around the MGEU offices all day.  We would also like you to know that he has been spotted on more than one occasion with his feet up on the president’s desk?  Do these actions signify a total lack of respect for the office of the president?

Then there is the issue of the Area 2 Director.  There are rumours out here that he has not had his grievance heard and that he may also be working in a casual position within a MGEU bargaining unit.  If he is in fact working casually in another bargaining unit and not his clerical position, then it stands to reason that he would have to have signed a new Union card.  If this is the case he would no longer be able to hold his positions at the local level within the clerical component, ergo he could not remain the Area Director or sit at the MFL.  If he is in another MGEU bargaining unit he would have to run for a local position within this local and would still not be entitled to a directorship until area 2 has another election.

We hear that the reason that the Area 2 Director has not been asked to step down is because we are waiting to hear about his grievance.  The powers that be state there is a precedent for this and it happened back in the 1990’s.  We suggest that the Board of Directors look into what actually happened in this situation.  We believe that the two scenarios are not even close to being the same.  It is believed that the Director in that case was only able to attend one further Board Meeting after his dismissal, not months and months.  We also believe that there was not a grievance filed in this case but it was in fact an expedited arbitration.  Much more timely than what is happening now.

We know that this president has also allowed members past their good before date to stay on much longer than our Constitution allows.  These scenarios were mentioned by the previous bloggers and we feel it is not necessary for us to rehash what has come before.  We further believe that the present two scenarios speak for themselves.  As usual friends of the president get preferential treatment.  Again, think back to 2013 and 2014 and what happened to those directors that questioned the president’s membership. There is still a black cloud floating around over this issue unless the president wants something.

Did you know that the presidents BFF is also a cousin of the Area 2 Director?  There is a question out here as to whom we are speaking about when we refer to the BFF.  Seeing as how we are loath to put out names one should look back into the Area 5 history and that of the CHSS Component.  This individual was the director of both prior to moving to CUPE in the last round of rationalization votes.

At this point we would like to say that we have heard that the bloggers are being injurious to the MGEU membership.  We say baloney.  If the truth is hurting the MGEU then our president has the opportunity to make it right.  It is ever so easy to blame everyone else for your own short comings.

Have we proved nepotism?  We believe that we have at least taken the first steps in that direction throughout this blog.  What do you say?

Vainglorious

The dictionary describes vainglorious as: excessively proud of oneself or one’s achievements; overly vain.

And now for the rest of the story.

As the next MGEU convention comes into sight in October of this year, the president has been heard to say that she needs to be elected for at least two more terms to be eligible to collect a pension.  Does this sound like a person who is running to look after you or fellow members or is it someone wanting the position to look after herself now and in the future?

Let’s talk about the upcoming convention in October 2018.  Did you know that in the past and most likely the future, this president has and will utilize the knowledge and expertise of the hired staff to write speeches, do photo ops, do printing of her propaganda and whatever else is required?  She may, perhaps, even use those members seconded to work on the rationalization votes as her emissaries to campaign for her while they are out looking after our members.  None of the rest of the candidates will be given the same phenomenal option!  All of this is to be done on the candidates own dime.  However, we truly believe she uses these resources to make herself look good. She has also brought in her BFF to help her out as has been her practice for the last three Conventions.  Let’s not forget the area five director who is presently off work on a Comp Claim but is able to drive her around the country.  There has never been another president or candidate that has ever behaved in this way.

We look for diversity on the MGEU Board of Directors. From up close it appears we have one worker of colour.  From a historic point of view the previous third vice president who holds a Master’s degree in Education and is an aboriginal woman, had so much to offer the membership and was taken out by another woman, who does not possess either the education nor skill set required to do the third vice-president position justice.  Remember the expectations of the third vice president is to deal with the education of the membership.  The president decided she was better off with someone she could control and her candidate was successful.

Talking about diversity or lack thereof, did you know that the present, third vice president refuses to drive from her rural home to Winnipeg through an aboriginal community because she is afraid. So, what does she do?  She drives extra kilometers around this community to get to Winnipeg and the President condones this behaviour and our members pay the mileage.  The president spins it as a health and safety issue.  Can you believe this?   We are sure that our Metis and Aboriginal members will not be happy to learn of this, nor should anyone else find this justifiable.

It also appears that there may be the game of musical chairs within the leadership of our Union this time around.  We know that our present first vice-president is seeking to become our new president and that our current fourth vice-president is looking at becoming our new first vice-president.  There is also rumours out here that yet another friend of this president will be putting her name forward as fourth vice-president.  Once again where is the diversity?  Four women and one man and all the provincial officers are from rural Manitoba.   Wake up Winnipeg you have the largest number of members and are not represented at the provincial level.  We believe there needs to be a complete and utter change at the provincial level. There is no gender parity and there is most certainly a lack of representation by population.  Let’s think towards our future and that of our children and our children’s children.

We believe that our current leadership has been ineffectual in dealing with our members issues.  The MGEU can’t even get an audience with our premier and there are some very serious issues that need to be dealt with before it is too late.  Then there is the issue with our staff not being allowed to do their jobs.  We as members are spending a lot of our dues money on a payroll for a staff that are not utilized to their full potential, all because of a president that needs complete control over everything.   We are ever hopeful that there is a new group of individuals seeking office this Convention, that will bring knowledge, vision and a commitment to what it means to be an activist in the MGEU. Friends and concubines have no place here.

Beware membership, we are not the only ones who have a problem with her and her inability to stay on the straight and narrow.  We are hearing from other Unions in Manitoba that we are no longer refered to as the MGEU, but as “Gawronsky’s goons”.

What do you say?

PS: one only has to look at the “presidents 5 minute updates”, to see that our president is vainglorious. It is never about what we have achieved, only what she has done.  We now know that the Commissioner for the rationalization votes has been appointed. Shouldn’t be too long before the process begins.

Autarchical

The dictionary describes autarchical as an absolute rule or power; autocracy.  Autarchical as an adjective: having and exercising complete political power and control.  Absolute, absolutistic, arbitrary, autarchic, autocratical, despotic, dictatorial, monocratic, totalitarian, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous.

And now for the rest of the story:

As Bill 29, The Health Sector Bargaining Unit Review Act, comes into being there will now be a mad dash by all Unions representing Health Care Locals to begin campaigning.

There are still a few steps that need to take place before this can happen, however we know the amount of time, money and energy that will be expended in this campaign will be great.  It remains unclear if it will be a province wide vote, and that decision remains at the discretion of the Commissioner yet to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.

What we do know is that the MGEU has seconded a number of members to work on this campaign and also hired her BFF who is a retiree. This after the MGEU president stated she will not be having ANY retirees working on this committee!

The last time the MGEU went down this road we were very successful under the leadership of our then Organizer.  To the best of our recollection and not being part of the groups involved, we were successful in all areas except the Southern Health Authority.  This is the area that our president was a member as an Activity Coordinator at the Vita Personal Care Home.
When the dust cleared the Southern Health Authority was the only area where the MGEU was not successful and CUPE was the Union of choice in this area.

We believe there were a number of reasons that the MGEU lost.  First there are the numbers, and it was true that CUPE out-numbered the MGEU significantly in the Southern Health Authority.  But looking back, the MGEU was also out-numbered in a number of regions in the Province, where we won handily.  Secondly, the MGEU put together a script of why we were the better Union, but sadly a couple of rogue members thought they knew better and went off script.  Finally, we are led to believe that a vast number of our members were not happy with the bullying that was taking place by our now president and her BFF.  We also know that both were actively campaigning to have this president win her first election as president!

There are three things we know to be true this time around and that is, the BFF is back and working alongside our president.  You would think that the powers that be would have figured out this is not a winning combination and have moved on.  We know that the Organizer that was instrumental in the previous campaign is no longer with the MGEU, nor do we believe he was tapped by our president to come back.  Ego, pride, hatred?  Only our president knows for sure!  Finally, one only needs to talk to some of our members out west to know they feel let down by our Union.

It’s not only the Health Care members that are feeling let down by this president, but it is becoming more evident all the time, that other sectors of our Union, members are feeling left behind.  The GOLICO and MPI Components should feel slightly worried about the direction which they are headed.  That dirty word PRIVATIZATION keeps rearing its ugly head. What will this year’s GOLICO video say in support of this president?  We know that a part of the Home Care Program has been contracted out and once the Master Agreement is done, so is the Contracting Out language, protecting our members.  Our premier has made it clear that he would like to shrink our Civil Service by at least 8%.

Knowing what we do at this point, the MGEU could stand to lose up to 14,000 members in the rationalization votes.  The BFF and our other members have little or no experience in this type of campaign, and neither do the president and staff she is allowing to work on this.  We also know that the last time around, the president and her BFF put out erroneous information in the Southern Health Authority that almost caused an unfair labour practice to be filed against the MGEU.  Let us hope our president, her BFF and the other friends she has chosen to work this campaign, work hard on behalf of our membership, instead of looking to campaign for her re-election.

What do you say?