Hacking

Hacking  

The dictionary describes hacking as follows: the activity of illegally using a computer to access information stored on another computer system or to spread a computer virus. 

And now for the rest of the story: 

So, we are at it again.  A motion was made at the Area 5 council meeting in April to allow the MGEU to spend an unlimited amount of money to find the bloggers.  The consortium is made up of dues paying MGEU members, so in fact we will be paying hackers to find ourselves.  Does this make sense?  We already know who we are!!!!  More importantly we will only find who is hosting the blog, not the actual blogging consortium.   

Agreeing to authorize unlimited amounts of money is outrageous!   

Isn’t it enough that our president has spent millions on our Health Care Campaign, a small but still significant amount of money on our Civil Service Ads plus, another appreciable amount of money on her exorbitant travels around the country.   Enough is enough.  This is our money and we find it even more unbelievable that you continue to spend like there is no tomorrow.  

Engaging in illegal activity to find a blog!  Fortunately, this motion must go to the Board of Directors for approval.  Let’s hope that more intelligent heads prevail.  More importantly, hacking is illegal and blogging is not.  It will be interesting to see a Board of Directors of a union charged with illegal hacking being displayed through the local papers.  Blogging is yet another form of freedom of speech.  To our fellow brothers and sisters who occupy the coveted positions as elected leaders of our union, do not be taken in when this motion comes forward by buying the rhetoric and being party to a crime. 

Shame on you Ms. Gawronsky for putting our members in this position.  As president you should lead from a position of honesty and integrity and not from a position of fear, hatred and paranoia! 

One last piece of information to consider is that someone very close and personal to our president is himself a blogger of yore.   

Please see this attached post. 

This individual has said some pretty nasty things about the labour movement and unions specifically, yet he is our presidents most trusted confidante. 

Additionally, why is the union removing comments on Facebook placed there by members when they are expressing their opinions about how the president is dealing with membership issues? More evidence of the chronic double standard that has been evident since 2012! 

 

Machiavellian

Machiavellian

The dictionary describes machiavellian as follows: 1. cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics.

“Machiavellian personality in psychology refers to a personality trait which sees a person so focused on their own interests they will manipulate, deceive, and exploit others to achieve their goals.”  For more information look up, “What is Machiavellianism in psychology?”  We are not diagnosing but merely seeking to explain things as we see them.

And now for the rest of the story:

Open, transparent and member driven are three of the most common terms used by our president to describe the basis for what the MGEU stands for.  She has based the past almost nine years of her tenure on these assumptions, but from the blogging consortium’s perspective this has been nothing but smoke and mirrors.  Well, it appears that we are not the only ones that are disgruntled with the lies and half-truths our president tells us.

It came to our attention that there was an interesting debate taking place, on the MGEU Facebook page regarding a posting, “There are 5 things that make the MGEU the best choice for Health Care workers.”  The usual faction appeared ready to fight with anyone who had an opposing view of the president’s rhetoric.  Members were being challenged for how they feel about our Union if they were not in agreement with the current doctrine.  There has to be a better approach, than the in your face pontification that these individuals use when feeling cornered, as we are after all, open, transparent and member driven.

The count for the number of comments made on this article as of the evening of Thursday April 11, 2019 was 101.  On Friday April 12, 2019 the comment count is 51, what happened to the 50 missing comments?  Is this kind of censorship we as members of the MGEU are going to tolerate when we have a differing opinion than our president?  The suppression of debate is very Trumpesque and contrary to our fundamental right of freedom of speech.  This may also be the appropriate time to talk about how scripted our Union has become, we lack the spontaneity we once had.  Is this really the face of democracy?  It would also appear that we are falling far short of our mission statement in allowing our Home Care brothers and sisters to be left so far behind.

And if the insult of censorship is not enough, someone in their ultimate wisdom chose to post a picture of the 1996 Home Care strike.  The objective of that strike was to save the jobs of our members, as well as the Home Care Program.  We were very successful back then, but now we choose to stiffle these same members voices.  SHAME ON US!  Censorship on any level is so blatantly undemocratic and contrary to what the labour movement stands for.  For our president to allow this sort of behaviour to take place within the MGEU is so Machiavellian on her behalf.  Stop talking about democracy, open, transparent and member driven if you will NOT allow our members to have their voices heard!

What is wrong with the concept of some of our health care members going to another Union where they may finally be treated with the dignity they so deserve?  We had no issues when the shoe was on the other foot!!  We gladly accepted another Unions member’s in the last round of rationalization votes and have never looked back.  We have however never lived up to our promises and for that reason alone we may lose some of our Health Care members this time around.  Our fault!  And who has been
our president since the votes took place in 2012?  Michelle Gawronsky!  This is not a threat nor is your life in danger, so put away your crocodile tears and step up to the plate and take your own medicine as you deserve everything you get.

Lastly a shout out to our Civil Service members who are at the bargaining table, we wish you the best of luck.  We all know this will not be an easy round of bargaining with a government that cares little for their employees.

PS.   We have heard about what the Risk and Strategy Committee has been up to and guess what that is?  They have spent most of their time focused on this Blog and what to do about it.  Isn’t it fortunate for us to have been able to find a way to voice our concerns in a public manner without interference or censorship by the MGEU?  We don’t expect everyone to agree with everything we say, but it is freeing to be able to say what we want!

In solidarity

Flabbergasted

Flabbergasted

The dictionary describes flabbergasted as follows:  to overcome with surprise and bewilderment; astound.

And now for the rest of the story:

Didn’t our president send out the MGEU group of professional picketers to walk the line with CUPW when they were having their hiccup with Canada Post?  Isn’t it the Trudeau government that legislated CUPW back to work?  So why are you having your picture taken with our Prime Minister, other than for just one more photo-op to stick in your scrapbook?  Which party do you want to be with?

Our president states she is the president of the largest Union in the province of Manitoba, yet she is constantly having her picture taken with the political parties that are anything but labour friendly.  Again, it comes down to our dues paying for you to flit around having your picture taken for nothing more than the opportunity to say you have met these individuals.  Is this really the message you want to send to the labour movement in Manitoba.  How much respect do you feel you gain by these sorts of actions?  None as far as we can tell.

Our membership is in dire straits with the intermingling votes, Civil Service bargaining, layoffs, and department closures, yet you find the time to gallivant around doing whatever it is you do, and little or no attention being focused on our issues.  Better yet what are you doing about the potential loss of wages for our Civil Service members?  We had heard nothing from you except your initial announcement on March 22, 2019, that the Manitoba Government needs to insure they have money in their bank accounts to pay government employees and keep programs running, after March 29, 2019.  However, Friday you  sent out a message saying you “give full credit to the government for making this the first priority when the legislature resumes on Monday.” Your statements are underwhelming, especially when you say you want some assurances that this won’t happen again.  Well, we want some assurance you will cut back the spending on rationalization votes we can never win. What we do know for sure is that the MGEU membership will continue to pay their dues to the MGEU, thus insuring you continue to make your six-figure salary without threat, and we are also pretty sure you will not curtail your spending habits.