Bafflegab

Bafflegab

The dictionary describes bafflegab as follows: incomprehensible or pretentious language, especially bureaucratic jargon.

And now for the rest of the story:

As more and more closures and privatization of government services are announced our president continues to spin her bafflegab on the issues, but as usual very little action is taking place.  Looking at the News on the MGEU website we can actually see how unprepared our president is when it comes to our members losing their jobs.  The solution?  A rally to save Selkirk Laundry?  It has been common knowledge for some time that the government was planning to shut down this facility yet at the very last moment our president has a rally.  Better yet a rally from what we can confirm was not well attended.  Poor planning? Incompetence or does our president have more of an interest in her beloved Health Care groups only?

Next there is the contracting out of Manitoba’s Air Ambulance.  Again, this situation has been a long time in coming with the knowledge that the contracting out of these services was the potential outcome for some time.  What did our president do?  She released a “comprehensive report” a year ago that stated the plan to privatize this service was short-sighted and unsafe.  In our humble opinion this would have been a great time to mobilize those northern communities that will be impacted by this announcement and the services they presently enjoy, but alas this did not happen.  Yet in her biography when running for president she talks about traveling the province and engaging Manitoban’s?  Bafflegab!

Our brothers and sisters who work for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries also appear to be in a precarious position as this government continues to push for the private sector to have increased participation in liquor retail and distribution sectors.  Again, what are we doing?  Well we have the online petition and radio Ads!  We know one thing for sure the MGEU isn’t spending $6.5 million on helping these members!

On the other front, we appear to have between 45 and 50 members and retirees on the Health Care Campaign.  There is a new question floating around out here and that is, how many MGEU members does it take to hand out ice cream to other Union members at any given site?  Answer, 10 to 12.  What a waste of our dues.  Little or nothing being done for various other sectors of our membership but large amounts of money being spent on health care with very little to show for it.  Cold pizza and warm ice cream!  One of the things we find most interesting is that our president who so loudly stated that the Health Care Campaign would only be staffed with members, has now taken on a number of retirees under contract, meaning she is paying them for their time.  Bafflegab!

Nothing our president ever says can be taken at face value, because it changes like the wind.  Today it is this and tomorrow it is something completely different, yet a larger number of our members are coming under fire from this government with little or no money being spent on them.  Radio Ads, petitions and small rallies, are just not adequate to take on this government.  If other Union members are buying into the idea that they will be better off with the MGEU they should be doing some major fact checking.  If other Unions are thinking that all the free food we are presently handing out is the norm for the MGEU they should be fact checking.  If other Union members believe they will be treated with any more respect at the MGEU they should be fact checking and finally contrary to what we are saying at the MGEU, contracts do matter.  It is interesting watching our president in action!  She presents as all warm and knowledgeable but there is a predator under the surface.

On a good note, the motion made by area 5 to come after the bloggers by hacking has been tabled.  We understand that the area 5 director was somewhat upset that he was not able to bring this motion back to area 5 to have it rescinded.  It does appear there are a number of Board members that get the big picture and for once the Gawronsky agenda was foiled by much smarter people.  What we like best is that there is a permanent record that the area 5 director was asking our members to do something illegal.  Maybe he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.