Contretemps

Contretemps

The dictionary describes contretemps as follows: a small argument or unlucky event, often happening in public and causing social embarrassment.
And now for the rest of the story:

Somehow the news just never improves for our MGEU members.  This week alone we get information that the Manitoba government has asked Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries to privatize more sales.

Health Inspectors are having to deal with unfilled positions and perhaps putting the public at risk.  Lifeflight appears to be falling short of it’s mandate due to government funding and resource issues.  Manitoba Housing is going through a significant loss of affordable housing units, the future of the Selkirk Laundry operations are in question, job loss at Manitoba Government Agriculture Services,
and our Trades Component have taken a major hit with department closures and permanent layoffs.  These are but a few of the issues facing our membership at this time and there continues to be issues in almost all of our Civil Service Components as well as our Health Care sector.  When will it stop, but more importantly where is our president in all this mess?

The small articles on our Facebook page and our president speaking to the media on issues are not the type action our members expect from our Union.  We are spending millions of dollars on Health Care, however these members make up less than half of our membership.  Stop talking…it’s time for action!!!

While in the midst of probably one of the largest attacks by government, on our public sector workers, our president has chosen to spend unlimited money on finding out who the blogging consortium is.  Really?  Is that going to help our membership in anyway?  We know for certain that it will not save jobs.  The money spent on our president’s personal vendetta to shut this blog down only really benefits her. As we have always said,  if our president was to actually spend some time and energy on us the membership of the MGEU then the blog would probably disappear.  Isn’t it interesting how she just had to be the president of the largest Union in the province of Manitoba, yet, she will accept no criticism on how well she performs the duties of her office.  Sad really, and maybe if she just listened to our membership she would learn about what is important to us, and worry less about what is important to her.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know if the $5 million plus that has been spent on Health Care to this point is actually yielding any positive results.  We of course will never know as we are not one of the privileged few!  Make no mistake, if the MGEU loses members during the Health Care votes, that is also a loss in revenue for our Union.  Our president made a threat at Convention last fall.  If we keep asking for things she will raise our dues.  If we lose members through Department deletions, layoffs, contracting out as well as the Health Care Sector votes we can almost be sure our dues will increase.

Lastly it is important to note that the MGEU has taken a couple of hits on our Facebook page as well as in the Brandon Sun.  Even though these posts are from MGEU members we are sure that somehow they will be tied back to the bloggers.  It is important to realize it’s not just the Consortium that is disgruntled with our Union, there are many others as well.  We are sure that those members that cannot shield themselves in autonomy will take some major heat for their actions.  We are with you sisters and brothers.  Your fight is our fight!