Dear Brother’s and Sister’s,
Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I would like to wish everyone and their families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. During this Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend I was able to take time to think about what has transpired over the last six weeks and at the last membership meeting.
With great concern and caution, I believe the time has come to make some major changes where it comes to the organization of the “Working Together Process”(WTP). I have already started the re-organization of the WTP by sending the JPC (Joint Process Coordinators) back to their home shops. After meeting with the board I have decided to put a committee together to look at the issues and restructuring of the WTP. During this time I’m requesting that all meetings below the JLT (Joint Leadership Team) be placed on hold effective 13 Dec. 2010, pending discussion over restructuring from the floor up. Specifically, Mr. Collins and the JLT must correct the broken process of Directors and Managers making unilateral decisions on matters such as: Canceling 4/10’s, new policies of attire and toolboxes or Friday off after Thanksgiving, just to name a few examples. I’m sick and tired of being slapped in the face with issues that negatively affect our member’s lives because a manager without a business plan to support his decision changes a policy or a shift without using the WTP.
Now, with all that said, it is not my intention to do this in a vacuum. There is still a pending motion to suspend the WTP which was on the agenda to be voted on at the November Membership Meeting. After 20 minutes of debate on the motion to suspend “working together” in the 7am meeting, a motion was made to Table the question until they could get further information. In the following meetings many opinions and arguments were made about the motion to suspend the WTP and the motion to table, but no one made a motion to un-table the motion to suspend the WTP and it remains tabled as of now. Unfortunately, voting on the original motion was done incorrectly and the motion should have been to Postpone instead of Table. This is because the intent of the motion was to delay the vote until we could receive the information. That was my mistake and I apologize for it.
I spoke with David Rosen the TWU International attorney, about the motion to table or postpone and parliamentary procedure on this issue. Roberts Rules of Order are guidelines for holding a single meeting in an orderly manner so all business can be covered. Our problem lies in how to handle issues of motions to amend, postpone, lay on table etc. for multiple meetings. There is nothing in the TWU constitution or Roberts Rules that cover this exact issue and past presidents have done it different ways. Therefore, the board will be creating a policy to handle the issues of amendments, postpone and lay on the table motions to be voted on during multiple meetings in the future. As for the current motion on the table, it is proper to un-table at any of our upcoming meetings.
Sincerely,
Sam Cirri
President
Transport Workers Union of America
Local 514