Survey

Survey after survey, conducted by TWU Local 100 Contract Survey from April-May 2011 consistently proves one important point about TWU Local 100. While most members are highly critical of our leadership under John Samuelsen with his TBOU team as a whole, they love the TWU Local 100, no matter how bad it really is.

Such is the case with John Samuelsen with his TBOU cronies with their financial irregularities, problems or standards as indicated in the interim report of April 1, 2011. This report may lead to the quick demise of John Samuelsen with his TBOU chums and may set a new record since his leadership started on January 2010. Since he has assumed the tutelage of TWU Local 100 nothing has gone right - layoff, robber baron solidarity fund, Israel Rivera removal, moving from 80 West End to the unfriendly building at 1700 Broadway, wild meaningless claims of purchase of property in mass membership meeting then the icing on the cake, the use of the union credit cards improperly for non union functions but rather personal nature.

The interim report is an extensive, scathing report summarizing improper use of union credit cards however John Samuelsen did not rush to survey the membership on how they felt about their dues being swiped which is absolute resentment but rather came with a scheme to pacify them with a TWU Local 100 Contract Survey from April-May 2011.

By and large the membership will ignore the financial quagmire that TWU Local 100 is in, so long as they are not forced to pay more dues out of their thin paychecks due to the fact that the membership are very observant, engaged and disciplined in reading their paychecks. John Samuelsen’s confidence is not shared with the membership.

Because of the gravity of the situation TWU Local 100 under John Samuelsen is in a life-or-death process that will be decided by the TWU International. We are also aware that John Samuelsen tried to stir ‘TWU International is mad at us’ thus we have to fight back, ‘it is war’ - thus what transpired was ominous. Clearly the membership noisily engaged in their own chosen independent activities - monthly meetings have been turned into horseplay with TBOU members unable to conduct some meetings thus they were whimsically cancelled.

Actually the chaos at TWU Local 100 comes as no surprise to us. When John Samulesen with his TBOU pals presented their pie in the sky plan in January 2010, it was clear that the entire enterprise was built on meaningless jargon centered around the social political movement that aims for a classless and stateless society structured upon common ownership of the means of production free access to articles of consumption, and the end of wage labor and private property in the means of production and real estate, one of a dozen such questionable ideas stitched together in a proposal  that would’ve been comical had not the future of the TWU Local 100 been put at risk by the current financial crisis.

There is no question there may be aspects of this that are very disturbing - it is clear John Samuelsen is trying to cloud the financial issue with his personality however the membership must be given all the information rather than pacification with a survey that will not change the outcome of the contract. It is a foregone conclusion, and anything less than the current wage raise of 11.3% is not acceptable.